


In the Red

by writerx75



Category: Bleach
Genre: Alternate Universe - Detectives, Anal Sex, Burglary, Business, Crimes & Criminals, Dirty Talk, Dirty Thoughts, Explicit Sexual Content, Fluff, Language, M/M, Masturbation, Organized Crime, Phone Sex, Rimming, Roleplay, Sparring
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-10
Updated: 2016-07-10
Packaged: 2018-07-22 18:55:55
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 61,411
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7450348
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writerx75/pseuds/writerx75
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ichigo Kurosaki, P.I., agrees to take on a job to stop an organized crime takeover of a family-owned business.  The real problem might be the identity of the business owners, however...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, All! Please note that this piece was written as sort of a continuation of an earlier piece that I and friends had written during a round-robin, which you can find using these links: [Part 1](http://writerx75.livejournal.com/18541.html) and [Part 2](http://writerx75.livejournal.com/18875.html#cutid1). PLEASE read that one first, since there are parts of this one that won't make sense without reading that one, but I didn't feel right about re-posting that one here, since I didn't write the whole piece myself.
> 
> Also, as always, many thanks to [gwoman](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gwoman/pseuds/gwoman) for her help in improving this piece with her mad editing skills!

NOTE: Since this is the continuation of something written with friends as part of a round robin, please see the links in the Notes section to read the initial piece first so this one will make more sense. Thank you!  
______________________________________________________________________________

I cursed under my breath at the fact that doing sneaky surveillance after midnight rules out smoking. Instead I ground my teeth, telling myself that I was not going to have a nicotine fit all night. That's just what it felt like.

Trying to refocus, I reviewed the facts of the case so far. I'd been hired by a small cargo company being plagued by losses due to a thief who’d managed to break into their storage facilities overnight despite tall fences topped with barbed wire, guard dogs, and alarms on the fence gates. The alarms would go off as expected, but by the time anyone responded the robber would be long gone, and the company would be expected to cover the losses on the stolen goods.

I’d figured at first that the thief either broke into the facilities often and only stole when they found what they wanted, or that they'd been able to figure out when the odd combination of computer and robotic assembly parts they wanted had been delivered. Later, I’d thought that it seemed to be either an inside job or that whoever had been stealing things had access to a hacker who could check the shipping manifests, because I'd been here every night for the past five days and the only thing I'd noticed was that the Fall had been a chilly one this year and that all the dogs usually got bored sometime after midnight and settled down to sleep. After that, it had been so quiet in the storage yard that I could almost hear myself think. Like right now.

Gazing up at the clear night sky, I sighed inaudibly and at least thanked my luck that it was warmer tonight. I tried to remain in the same position most of the night, in the shadows near the receiving building, because I knew I might scare off the quarry if I moved around at the wrong time, but then I had trouble getting bored and feeling sleepy. So, along with my frequent perimeter scans, I found my mind wandering to some thoughts that kept me very alert...thoughts about a tall redhead.

Don't get me wrong – I've dated plenty of guys. Probably more than my share, actually, but I'd gotten into the habit of moving on fairly quickly due to all the weirdos that I seemed to attract. I can't tell you how many times I've been ripped off – cash, electronics, and even most everything in my apartment once. I've had my car stolen, been scammed, lied to, cheated on, and just about anything else you can think of. Before I met Renji, I'd actually been avoiding dating for several months due to this crazy, blue-haired freak, Grimm, whom I'd gotten together with briefly. He’d seemed OK the night I met him, but he turned out to be one of these guys who couldn't seem to decide if he wanted to fuck or fight. I could hold my own against him, but the night it had gotten bad enough that we’d pretty much trashed my apartment, I’d decided enough was enough. I’d kept seeing him around for weeks after that, as if he had been stalking me, but then he’d suddenly disappeared. I’d eventually heard through the grapevine that he'd picked up this skinny, green-eyed, emo guy, thinking he would be a pushover. As it turned out, the emo guy knew enough martial arts to pretty much twist Grimm into a pretzel and was also a high-priced lawyer, so Grimm was now on his way to prison to serve five years for assault.

As you can probably guess, after all of that I hadn’t had high expectations when Renji and I had got together. Not that I hadn’t hoped for something better, the way I usually do (which always seems to get me into trouble), but this time the other shoe that I kept waiting to drop never did. My cash, my stereo, and my crappy TV all stayed where they were, and the “serious talk” that Renji had wanted to have with me a couple weeks after we'd gotten together had been him telling me he wanted us to be exclusive. Against my better judgment I’d agreed, but the stories that I was used to hearing afterwards, about how he was fucking all the other people in town, never surfaced. I mean, hell, with the way _he_ looks, I figured he wouldn't have trouble getting any guy or girl that he wanted, but it seemed like he wanted to spend all of his spare time with me instead. I thought that must have accounted for my temporary insanity after we'd been together a few months and I’d handed him a key to my apartment. Instead of finding it empty to the floorboards a few days later, however, I'd quickly gotten used to him slipping into my bed in the dark after he’d gotten off work. It had been a bit tense the first time it had happened, when I'd nearly attacked him before I'd figured out who he was, but now it had gotten to the point that I found myself drifting out of sleep around the time he usually arrived, and missing him if he didn't come by that night. And if you tell anyone I said that, I'll show up at your house and strangle you in your sleep.

We'd been together a little more than six months now, and I found myself thinking these crazy things. When I was daydreaming, instead of always obsessing on Renji's naked body and what I wanted to do with him the next time we got together, at least some of the time I would find myself thinking about things like how much I liked to wake up in the middle of the night with him wrapped around me, murmuring in my ear as he pulled me closer.

I think it was around that time that I started hearing noise and was distracted from my embarrassingly fluffy thoughts. I drew back a little further into the shadows and watched a figure in black with a dark ski mask on quietly climb the chain link fence and throw something over the barbed wire at the top, then carefully crawl over it and descend the fence on the inside. I got out my night vision camera (OK, it was way too expensive when I bought it, so I like to have an excuse to use it sometimes) and snapped a few shots of the thief climbing and looking through the crates for something in particular.

Since the owner of the company was well aware by this time of what the thief was looking for, she'd been able to point out the crates of interest to me, and I'd made sure to situate myself not far away. I took my final picture as the thief opened one crate and began to paw through the contents. _Bingo_.

“Drop the goods. You're under arrest,” I said. OK, so it was a little dramatic, but I did have some handcuffs on me, specifically purchased for this job, actually. And, yes, I'm well aware that I'm not part of the police, but the thief didn't know that.

On the other hand, maybe whoever was behind the ski mask wasn't buying it because they attacked me right away. I blocked the fist coming for my face and followed up with one directed at my opponent's chin. As we began fighting in earnest, I realized not only that my assailant seemed pretty good, but that the fight itself also seemed very familiar. It was too smooth, too practiced...as if I'd fought this person before.

I leaned back to avoid the fist coming in my direction and then stepped in with a punch to my opponent's face, which was blocked in a way I seemed to expect. As we fought I felt a tickle in the back of my mind, as if something I only remembered dimly was trying to surface. Finally, as I brought my leg up to avoid a kick, I had a strong mental image of sparring in the practice space under Urahara's rather suspect shop and I gasped as the idea clicked into place. I leaned forward, but this time it was with an open hand as I reached for my assailant's ski mask. Everything seemed to slow down and I noticed the eyes behind the mask widen in alarm just before my opponent turned away.

“Dammit, Jinta!” I yelled as I pulled the ski mask off more roughly than I'd intended, taking a clump hair along with it.

I could only see the back of his head as he bolted out the gate and the alarm began to sound and the dogs woke up, but he was unmistakable to me even in the dim light from the streetlamps. I grumbled and cursed to myself as I repacked the crate and loosely put the top back on. _I never should have allowed that goddamned idiot to date Yuzu_ , I mentally berated myself. As I climbed the nearest crate to wait for the owner of the company, who'd told me that if the alarm went off that she'd be here within minutes, I cooled off enough to actually start thinking about the situation. The more I thought, the more I grinned, to the point I was chuckling to myself. _Now, if only I can pull this off, everyone should end up happy_ , I thought as the owner drove up.

It was a little after 2AM when I finally got home, and I still had that crazy burst of energy I always get after receiving some good news. I had half of the equation in place; the only thing I needed to do at this point was to go to Urahara's tomorrow and strong-arm him into going along with what I had in mind, and I'd be able to successfully close the case. _Like that's going to be easy_ , I thought, but brushed it off as my stomach loudly reminded me that I hadn't eaten since early evening, just before I'd gone on the job.

With a sigh, I went over to check out my refrigerator, which I expected held its usual few odd items – something like a dried-up lime, a couple of beers so old I couldn't remember when I'd gotten them, and an odd assortment of aging condiments – but I froze in place once I opened it. I'd momentarily forgotten that another one of the benefits of Renji having my key was that the man detested an empty refrigerator. He always complained that I was so skinny that I _needed_ to have food in my house, but I frequently forgot to shop for it, especially when I was in the middle of a case. I somehow managed not to cry with joy as I pulled everything out to make a sandwich, and once I'd made it, I probably wolfed it down in a few minutes.

As I finally settled down on the couch with a cigarette and a beer that I knew had only been in the house a week or so, I felt content, like everything was finally in place. _Well, all except one_ , I thought as I looked at the front door, knowing it wasn't going to be opening tonight. Renji knew I was on this job all week, and since he said he didn't like coming over to an empty house, I hadn't seen him since the previous weekend. I tried to relax, stretching out on the couch, but I couldn't help staring at my cell phone as I pulled it out of my jacket pocket to get more comfortable. I felt like it was gazing back at me after a while, so I finally gave in and picked it up. _I'm sure he'll want to hear the news_ , I thought, trying to mentally justify my actions, but I couldn't stop once I’d started, because I'd begun to think about hearing his voice again.

I was re-thinking the idea when the phone rang the third time, and I'd almost decided to hang up when he answered. Selfishly, the rush of shivering heat that shot up my spine when I heard him made me glad I called, regardless of how mad he might be.

“Hello?” Renji asked, his voice deep and thick. I'd woken him up, and bastard that I am, I wasn't even sorry because his half-asleep voice is one of the sexiest things I've ever heard.

“Hi,” I replied, trying and failing not to sound completely breathless. I shifted on the couch, trying to ignore the fact that I'd gone from content to restless in a heartbeat.

“Ichigo. I should have known it was you.” I could hear the thread of humor that ran through his pronouncement and smiled.

“Well, I didn't say I'd stop calling you in the middle of the night just because you're not a client anymore.”

The rich chuckle I got in response set off a slow burn in my groin and I swallowed against my now dry throat. “Well, you're lucky I don't mind,” Renji responded, his voice still a low growl. “How's the job coming?”

“I had a good break tonight. With any luck, I'll be able to wrap it up tomorrow afternoon.”

He was silent for a moment, and then I heard something that sounded almost like a purr. “Hmmm...so that means you'll be home tomorrow night, huh? Does that mean you want me to come by?”

In the split second it took for me to process that, my heart had started beating so loudly that I wasn't sure I could be heard over it. I struggled for a moment, taking in a deep enough breath so that I wouldn't sound like some sort of idiot when I responded, but all I could come up with was a tiny, breathless, “Yeah.” _At least it wasn't ‘hell, yeah,’_ I thought, rolling my eyes at myself.

“Then I will,” Renji replied, his voice still low and promising. “I'm working the late shift, but don't worry...I'll wake you up just the way you like.”

“Renji,” I gritted out through clenched teeth in my embarrassment.

“What? I know how horny you can get when you finish a case and everyone's happy.” Renji sounded as if he was trying for an indignant tone but could barely keep himself from laughing again. I could feel my face...and other parts getting even hotter as I got a mental replay of the incident I knew he was talking about.

I'd gotten a call from the local subway union leaders. When I’d gone over to talk to them, I’d found out that they'd been having lots of complaints from their members in track repair as to how dangerous the working conditions had become, partially in response to six people who'd died in various accidents in the track bed in the past year. The subway management had taken a long time to investigate the accidents and had finally come back with outcomes blaming the victims – if they'd been new, management said they'd been “careless,” and the older employees were said to have “become complacent.” The union members told a very different story of how they had been unable to get proper safety equipment and how the managers had forced them to do jobs unsafely and penalized or fired them if they’d complained. Since they were contractually unable to carry any audiovisual recording gear, however, it had all boiled down to one person's word against another. Also, since management had waged a rather successful media campaign painting the union employees as lazy, greedy, and incompetent, public opinion had been stacked against the union.

Due to the complaints of their members, the union leaders had arranged for me to spend a week on the job undercover. Since they were ultimately in charge of hiring, they'd been able to set up a cover identity for me and had paired me with one of their experienced members who'd worked for the company for 20 years. I’d showed up wired for sound and with a tiny camera lens hidden in one of the buttons on my coat and proceeded to see firsthand the dirty and dangerous conditions the workers were forced to labor under. The employees had worked hard but had been hindered in their jobs by managers who knew nothing about how the work needed to be done and had knowingly ordered employees to work in an unsafe fashion or be fired (in order to save time or get more work done). Plus, upper management had been unwilling to provide needed safety gear and had an extremely cavalier attitude about the lives of the employees in general. I’d also gotten an earful about how management was currently in court to prevent the union members from getting the 2% raise they'd been promised and had gone without for several years now, even though management had continued to push more and more healthcare costs back on the employees. For some reason, management had claimed they’d been unable to pay the raises but hadn’t seemed to have trouble spending millions on equipment they’d never checked with the workers about and that usually couldn't be used on the subway system at all.

At any rate, on the day Renji was talking about, I'd had my final meeting with the union leaders. They’d been beyond happy with the success that my filmed week of work on the subway had generated. I'd worked with someone for several days afterwards to clip the most significant portions of what had happened and to point out some of the most messed up situations I'd filmed. After that, they'd created several short videos highlighting the worst things that had happened and anonymously posted them on YouTube, then anonymously alerted the local media. Public opinion had changed notably as a result, and most of the local people were now up in arms at the casual attitude of the subway management towards the safety and lives of their employees, and were now even sympathetic to the workers' long-delayed raise. As a result, the union was in talks on a much different footing with management and had written me up a big check for my efforts, including a bonus that they said was 40 hours of pay for a beginning track repairman. That portion was amazingly small, despite all of the backbreaking labor involved, amounting to not much more than minimum wage.

I could remember leaving that day, feeling like I'd actually accomplished something for the union and the workers. The other strong sensation I got felt like that huge check was nearly burning a hole through my wallet; the feeling of being lost I usually get after finishing a big case had been momentarily pushed into the background. I’d felt all of this hot energy, and the only thing I could think of was getting to Renji as fast as possible.

Fortunately, I’d been in luck once I got to his work. Some really tall guy had been just making his way out the door, and Renji was calling some reminder after him as I’d come in. I’d been so focused that I hadn’t even been paying attention to what he was saying to me as I’d walked right up to him and pressed him against the wall under the pictures of some of the truly obscene tattoos and pulled his head down so that I could kiss him.

He’d been grinning when we’d separated for breath and asked, “So, did the meeting go well?”

I’d tried to respond in kind, but I’d been strung too tightly to smile back. “Yeah, it went really well, I've got a huge check in my back pocket, and I need you to fuck me. Now.”

Renji's initial attempt at a reply had turned into a hiss as I’d pressed myself against him, grinding my hips into his. When he’d looked back at me a moment later, his eyes had suddenly darkened several shades. “It's like that, is it?” he’d murmured, grabbing my forearm. “Come on.”

He’d pulled me through the curtain into the back room, past Shuuhei, who'd paused his work inking a phoenix on someone's shoulder to gaze at us curiously as we’d walked quickly by. “I need a break. Fifteen minutes,” Renji’d called out as he’d led me past the work room and down a corridor. I’d caught a glimpse of the smirk Shuu threw in our direction as he’d gone back to what he'd been doing, the expression on his face saying that he’d been sure we wouldn't be back anytime soon.

And then I’d in one of the smallest bathrooms I'd ever seen, tiny enough that we’d been all over each other whether we’d wanted it or not, and hell if I hadn’t wanted _that_ more than I'd ever wanted anything. I just remembered Renji giving me this devilish, sexy smile as I’d wordlessly handed over the lube and condoms I'd somehow had the presence of mind to buy while stopping for cigarettes on the way over. “Just try to keep it down, Ichigo. The walls are kind of thin back here.”

I’d done my best, but my recollection gets a little fuzzy near the end, so I can't say for sure how quiet I actually had been.

“You're never going to let me live that down, are you?” I asked, rubbing my forehead to try to get back into the present moment.

Renji's rich chuckle came to me over the line. “No, not when you gave me some of the best sex of my life in that dinky bathroom in the back of the shop. I still get hard when I think about it.”

I had a sudden mental picture of when I'd looked in the mirror as I'd come back down to earth that day. I’d appeared rumpled (no surprise, considering what we'd just finished), but I’d also looked shaken, because I was – shaken to the core. When I’d met Renji's eye in the mirror, I’d been able to see that he’d had that same look, too...like we'd somehow connected more deeply than just having great sex in a bathroom so small the two of us barely fit in it. He’d met my reflected gaze and brought me in for another kiss...and, yes, Shuu had been right that it was much later than fifteen minutes before we’d emerged again.

“ _Fuck_ , Renji,” I murmured, squirming on the couch as I undid my fly and tried to ease my jeans down so that they weren't as painfully tight around my now hard cock.

“I'm too tired to get up now and make it all the way over there, Ichigo, so I want you to do it for me,” he replied, his voice even lower and rougher than before, and way more persuasive.

“Do what?” I asked, wanting to hear him say it. I was trying hard to ignore the heat rushing to my face again and struggling not to stick my hand down my shorts.

“I want you to do yourself so that I can hear you,” Renji breathed into the phone. I strangled a gasp in my throat and shivered, because it sounded like he was right next to me, murmuring into my ear. “You make some of the hottest sounds I've ever heard.”

I mentally argued with myself for a moment, wishing I was in the right frame of mind to tell him to go to hell, but that part of me lost out because I really didn't want to. As I sighed a moment later I heard Renji chuckle, and the dark heat of the noise seemed to run right down my spine. “So,” he asked me, “where are you, Ichigo?”

“Sitting on the couch,” I answered, trying not to let my voice give away the fact that I was more like _lying_ on the couch and working on being half naked, as well.

“Go to the bed, Ichigo. You're going to need to be there, with what I want to hear you do.”

I swore under my breath and then let the air in my lungs out in a hiss between my teeth. “Don't make me regret this later.”

His laugh now held a note of victory. “Trust me, you won't regret it now or later. Make sure you're naked by the time your tight little ass hits the bed, because if I were there right now, I'd be pulling off all your clothes as fast as I could.”

I left my jeans somewhere near the couch and my shirt was next. Socks and underwear ended up near the bedroom door, and I could feel something hot and raw stir in my groin as I looked back over the trail of clothes leading to my bed. It was almost like Renji was just behind me somewhere, and that thought sent a bolt of pure heat through me.

“Yeah, well, I'm here,” I announced as I slid under the covers, the phone still pressed to my ear tightly.

“Good,” he replied, his voice a little smug. “Get the lube out.”

I didn't say anything as I fished it out of a nearby drawer, still mentally stuck on how deep and hot his voice was. “Got it.”

He chuckled again, and I tried to silence my little hissing breath in response. His deep laugh always sounded incredibly sexy, and somehow, hearing it right against my ear was almost too much. “I can tell you're already hard and ready for it,” Renji continued, “so go ahead, but whatever you do, you've got to let me hear you.”

“What, that's it?” I growled, but popped the cap on the lube anyway. “Do I have to do all the work around here?” Maybe I just said it to hear that _sound_ in my ear again, because it worked. _Just keep talking_ , I thought.

“Oh, you want a bedtime story, too?” he asked, and by now his voice was pure sin. “All right, let me tell you one about this hot redheaded detective.”

Since I was pouring lube into one hand, I wasn't paying much attention to what came out of my mouth, so I know I made some kind of noise, because Renji made a low growl of encouragement before he continued. “Yeah, you should see this guy. He's long and lean, but a lot stronger than he looks. I don't think he knows how fucking hot he is, though, because he spends most of his time trying to be some kind of badass.”

I admit I was only half listening to what Renji was saying because I could barely spare any attention for anything beyond _how_ he was saying it. Fuck, I could almost come just from listening to the man speak, so I focused in on the sound of his voice as I grabbed my cock. I had my head pressed into the pillow then, the phone supported by it and jammed up against my head so that it almost sounded like Renji was speaking right into my ear. I know I must have made some more...sounds, because before I knew it, Renji was talking to me again.

“Yeah, that's it, Ichigo, touch yourself. I want you to do more than just jerk off for me, though. I want you to fuck yourself.”

I couldn't help my ragged gasp at that because it was just what I wanted, too. I was so keyed up now that I couldn't take it slow, so I thrust two slick fingers into myself. _Maybe Renji has a point_ , I thought as I listened to my completely obscene yelp as I did.

“ _Fuck_ , yeah, that's it,” Renji encouraged me, and from his breathlessness and the hurried sound of his voice, I could tell he was jacking himself off too. Just the idea sent another dizzying burst of heat through me, and I moaned in response.

“The thing is though,” Renji continued, obviously determined to go on with his story now, “aside from being a badass, there was something this smoking hot detective liked to do with his ass way more. Good thing for him, he met another redhead with a big cock who liked to give it to the detective as much as he could.”

I was just about gone then; I knew I was making some crazy noises but I just couldn't stop. I had all four fingers in me by then, but with just the fucking thought of Renji's huge dick, it wasn't enough. I think I made some pitiful sound as if to complain, but it seemed to just encourage him.

“That's it, Ichigo, fuck yourself good. If I were there I'd be as deep inside you as I could, and I'd fuck you hard until you came all over me. Hell, just the way you look when you come is enough to send me over the fucking edge, too.”

His voice sounded so heavy and hot and affected, exactly like it did when he was murmuring into my ear as he pushed into me. I'd never been so full in my life as when Renji fucked me, and just the thought was enough to steal the breath from me and make me come so hard that white light blinded me.

My throat was a little raw when I came back to my senses sometime later, as if I'd been shouting, and I could still hear Renji breathing heavily on the other end of the line. “You sound like you ran a marathon,” I teased, my voice rough now, too.

He chuckled in return, and damn if it didn't send another rush of arousal though me. “You sound like you've just been fucked good. I wish I'd been there to see it.”

Even though I felt completely sated, I still felt a shiver of electricity run through me at that, and I rolled my eyes at myself. The things he made me feel were just completely crazy. “Maybe tomorrow,” I said, and nearly hit myself in the head for speaking before I thought about it.

“Good,” he replied, and _that_ tone was back again, making me shudder. “I'll be over there as soon as I can tomorrow night. Get some sleep, Ichigo.”

I felt too bonelessly content to do more than close the phone before I fell asleep.  
_____________________________________________________________

It was late morning by the time I finally made it to Urahara's shop. I looked at the old-fashioned glass jars of candy in the display window, noting as always that they looked quite dusty, the same as they had when I was a kid and my dad would occasionally bring us here so that he could visit with his old friend. I figured that the hard candy in one of the jars was probably old enough by now that, if it was ever going to leave its location, it would need to be chiseled out.

The bell attached to the door chimed as I walked in, and I took a cautious look around the dim interior. Despite the fact that it was supposed to be a candy shop, you were more likely to see huge men in ill-fitting dark suits glancing furtively from underneath the brims of their hats than you were kids buying candy. I'd run into a few school kids stopping here on their way home, but since the place was much better known as the shop where you could get the underground information or grey-market technology you needed, it was more often filled with people involved in somewhat dubious professions. Like me.

At the moment, the store was empty, so I began to move towards the further shadowed back rooms. As I did, Urahara stepped out from behind a shelf, looking at me from over his fan.

“Ah, Mr. Kurosaki,” he said, his hat pulled low over his eyes as usual, completely obscuring his expression. “I had a feeling I'd be seeing you today.”

I raised an eyebrow, surprised that Urahara wasn't beating around the bush like he usually did. “All right,” I began, “if you're feeling direct today, then let's get down to business. As you probably know, I'm here because I caught Jinta breaking into a local cargo company last night.”

Taking the camera out of my coat pocket, I flipped through the shots I'd taken, showing them to Urahara. He'd lifted his own eyebrows, probably about to protest that photos of someone dressed in a mask proved nothing, when I pulled the ski mask out of my other pocket. “Unfortunately, I was a little rough when I grabbed this and got a handful of his hair,” I continued, “which, as I'm sure you know, is very good evidence.”

I was surprised when I looked over at him, because for once Urahara didn't seem to have anything to say. He was moving his fan back and forth the slightest bit and just looked to be waiting for me to continue, and I didn't want to disappoint. “The way I see it, we've got two possible options here. One, I can turn Jinta in to the police along with all of the evidence I have and my testimony as to the fact that he works for you.”

“Mr. Kurosaki, don't insult my intelligence,” Urahara broke in then. “If you were planning to do _that_ , you already would have.”

“It isn't my first preference, I admit,” I replied, narrowing my eyes at the annoyingly intuitive shopkeeper. “Due to that fact, I managed to negotiate another potential course of action. Of course, if you're not interested in hearing it-”

“Don't be silly, Mr. Kurosaki,” he quickly interrupted. “Please continue.”

Shaking my head, I did. “When I talked to the business owner about this last night, she said she'd be willing to square things with the insurance company if you come up with the cash to cover the losses that her company had to pay out of their own pocket. It amounts to 20 thousand.”

“You can't be serious.” Urahara had dropped the fan from in front of his face and was gazing directly at me now, the look in his eyes still shaded by his hat, however.

“Look, Urahara, this isn't something that you can bargain about,” I said, looking him straight in the eye to try to let him know I was serious. “Those are her conditions – pay her the cash, no one gets prosecuted, and you get to keep what was stolen. Otherwise, I'm going to have to turn all of this information over to the police.”

He still looked a bit dubious, so I continued. “I also asked about those parts. 20 thousand for those is quite a deal. From what I was told, the absolute cheapest price you'd ever pay for the parts you got is 50 thousand on the open market. The way I figure it, you were probably shopping around for them, found out how much they cost, and flew off the handle. You probably said something to Jinta about getting those for you at a better price no matter what and then turned a blind eye to what he did next, am I right?”

He'd raised the fan again by the end of my question and was looking away from me. Taking that as unspoken agreement, I continued, “Urahara, you know how Jinta feels about you. You've got to be more responsible.”

Although no one I knew had ever been able to get the full story, not even Yuzu, we'd found out that Urahara had taken Jinta in when he was about six, since he'd been living on the streets at the time. He absolutely refused to talk about what had happened to his family. At any rate, due to what Urahara had done for him, Jinta seemed to think the man could do no wrong and didn't have a problem doing any of the truly crazy things the shopkeeper would ask of him.

As I looked over at Urahara, it seemed like he had the grace to at least look a little embarrassed, but then he had to go and spoil it by opening his mouth. “Well, Mr. Kurosaki, you know kids these days can just take the littlest thing you say the wrong way...”

I fixed him with a stare, and then shook my head. “Whatever. Anyway, if you see Jinta, let him know that if I ever even _hear_ about him stealing again, I'm going to tell Yuzu what I caught him at last night.”

There was the sound of something falling a little farther back in the store, and I turned my head to see Jinta stalking out from behind another set of shelves. “You play dirty pool, Ichigo,” he growled, but he was young enough that he sounded more like a housecat than a tiger.

“Yeah, and you'd do best to remember it,” I said, taking the opportunity to give him a hard stare. “Do you have any idea how heartbroken Yuzu would be to hear about this? You're not good enough to be dating her, you idiot.”

I was really pissed by then, both by Urahara's cavalier attitude and thinking about how upset my sister would be if she ever found out. I'd muttered my last sentence under my breath, but I knew Jinta had heard it. The look he gave me was actually what cooled me back down. He got really quiet and finally leveled a piercing gaze at me. “No one would be good enough,” he said, his voice full of conviction.

I could tell he was completely serious, which set me back a step. _Maybe he is good enough_ , I thought, studying his expression. Finally, I sighed and said, “Just don't do it again, dumbass.”

“I won't,” he said grudgingly, in a tone of voice that I knew meant it was a promise.

“Now,” I continued, turning back to Urahara, “about that money...”

To my surprise, he pretty quickly produced an old briefcase filled with small bills. “Don't you have a backpack or a messenger bag or something?” I asked, annoyed.

Urahara just smiled at me from behind his fan. I shook my head and grabbed the briefcase as I turned to go, feeling as if I was missing something but willing to let it go for the moment. “All right, but just remember that you owe me one, Urahara,” I said with a smile.

“In that case, let's even up right now,” he replied, and I turned back in his direction. “I hear through the grapevine that you've been keeping company with a redheaded tattoo artist.”

I tried hard not to let the surprise I was feeling show, but to my mortification, I could feel my cheeks getting hot. “What about him?” I growled.

“Well,” Urahara continued, his tone light, “I hear he's been behind in his rent. He's due to get evicted by the end of the month.”

My now furiously calculating brain told me that the month was going to be over in about three weeks, so I felt the anxiety in my gut loosen a little. Now I only had to figure out what the hell to do in the meantime. Belatedly, I realized I'd been standing speechless in Urahara's shop for a little while now, so I focused again and glanced at Urahara. I could feel my mouth hardening into a grim line as I realized that I'd been played since the moment I set foot in his shop, as usual. I'd thought I had the upper hand this time, but as I replayed the whole scene in my mind, I realized that Urahara had thought everything through before I'd arrived and had prepared all of his responses beforehand. I sighed, knowing that I wouldn't even have to count the money in the briefcase because he'd have already calculated how much he'd need to spend to get himself out of trouble.

“Thanks,” I finally said as I turned and walked out the door.

I was so preoccupied in thinking about Urahara's “gift” of information that I don't remember much about my final meeting with the owner of the cargo company. I think I remembered to advise her to set up cameras in her storage yard in the future, something I’d thought about quite a bit as I’d spent my evenings out in the cold, but I’m not sure. The one thing I do remember clearly was that she'd been happy enough to offer to pay me on the spot, in cash from the briefcase. I took one look at all of the small bills in the case and shook my head, telling her that I'd invoice her. Somehow, I didn't think my bank would believe that the source of the money was that I'd taken up stripping in my spare time.

I couldn't stop thinking about it as I drove back to my office. The place Renji was living in now was a fairly large two bedroom apartment in a decent section of town, so I didn't doubt that with Rukia gone he might have trouble affording it. I'd been over there only a few times since the time I'd gone to search Rukia's room for clues, and it was usually to pick him up when we were on our way somewhere. The condition of the place hadn't improved any; the only thing that seemed to stay constant was the firmly shut door of Rukia's former room. He seemed to spend a lot of time over at my place, and now it made even more sense, as I heard my mind repeat what he told me when I asked him if he wanted to go home that first night we got together – _no, that place is too empty_. He probably doesn't really want to live there anymore, I found myself thinking, but maybe there are too many memories there for him to feel he can leave. I sighed in frustration at the situation as I made my way out of the car and back into the building.

I continued to be lost in thought until I neared my office door. Stopping some distance away, I took a few seconds to study the man leaning against the wall opposite the door. He looked to be at least as tall as Renji, but it was hard to tell exactly due to his posture. He stared down at the floor with a sort of depressed frown and had shoved his hands into the pockets of his black dress pants. He was wearing a black jacket with a tie that seemed to match it, and with the white shirt he'd paired it with he probably should have looked like a thug, but something about his very short dark hair screamed former military to me, so the suit almost ended up looking like a uniform instead. I didn't see a holster around his waist, and from the way he was slumping over it would have been impossible to conceal a gun under his jacket, so I figured he wasn't here to shoot me, at least.

After a little while he spotted me, and something ignited in his eye as he straightened up and looked me over in return. He still looked a little depressed, but something about seeing me animated his expression a bit. “Are you Kurosaki?” he asked. He had the kind of voice that boomed out into the small hall, causing me to raise an eyebrow as I moved closer to my office door.

“I am. Who are you?”

He gave a small laugh. “You keep some pretty funny hours, don't you?”

I shrugged. “I was just finishing up with another case. If you had something urgent, you could have called,” I continued, jerking my head in the direction of the nameplate by my door, which also had my cell number on it.

The man gave a grin in return, and a warning sensation seemed to slide down my spine. He'd gone from looking depressed to dangerous in the time it took to breathe in. “No, I didn't mind waiting,” he replied, his voice now almost a warning as well.

“Is there something I can help you with, Mr....” I began, falling silent as I locked gazes with him, watching for a change in his expression or movement that would signal his attack.

He laughed again and this time it was a large sound, echoing in the hallway. “Kenpachi. I'm here to talk to you about a case.”

I raised an eyebrow, since the air of threat surrounding him hadn't dissipated even though the tense moment had passed. I unlocked my office door and stood aside. “Well, I guess you'd better come in, then.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> From the case files of Ichigo Kurosaki, P.I. In which a long conversation turns into a short battle, the initial clues for a new case are laid out, late night awakenings lead to steamy conclusions, and a surprise client is met.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, All! Please note that this piece was written as sort of a continuation of an earlier piece that I and friends had written during a round-robin, which you can find using these links: [Part 1](http://writerx75.livejournal.com/18541.html) and [Part 2](http://writerx75.livejournal.com/18875.html#cutid1). PLEASE read that one first, since there are parts of this one that won't make sense without reading that one, but I didn't feel right about re-posting that one here, since I didn't write the whole piece myself.

I watched Kenpachi carefully as I let the two of us in and he sat in my client chair. He met my eye as he sat, and his watchfully alert expression reminded me of the fact that I'd been in such a hurry to get to Urahara's that I'd barely had time to eat before I’d left the house and was still feeling sort of groggy.

“You want coffee?” I asked him as I crossed over to my office coffeepot and began getting it going.

“I wouldn't mind,” he replied, something in him seeming to relax just a bit as he spoke.

Once we were sitting opposite one another at the desk, him with his black coffee and me with my cup (with a lot of sugar in it), I got out my notepad. “So, tell me about the case.”

“You like sugar, huh?”

The big man was actually grinning at me now, and I ground my teeth for a moment as I cursed the fact that Renji's love for sweets had rubbed off on me. Holding back the urge to tell him that not only did I like sugar but that I was also the sweetest fucking thing in the room, instead I replied, “Yeah, I have a terrible sweet tooth. Now, about the case?”

Somehow, I think I managed to keep my expression neutral and expectant, not at all what he was hoping for, apparently. Kenpachi met my gaze and looked away, starting to appear somewhat down again, but at least he began talking.

“I work for a family-owned company. I'm in charge of security for the facilities and for the CEO, who's the third generation to run the business. A few months ago, he received an offer from another business owner to buy the family's company.”

I'd only taken a few notes so far, but I looked up at Kenpachi as he revealed the purchase offer. His expression hadn't changed, but something in his eyes had hardened and I waited for the rest.

“The family has no desire to sell, and the CEO told the potential buyer as much. He returned the following month, however, with an even better offer, but the CEO turned him down again and explained that the family wasn't interested in selling, period.” Kenpachi met my eyes again and his were positively steely now. “Not long after that, strange things started happening all over the company.”

“What sorts of things?”

“We started having troubles we'd never had before – shipments of our goods went missing, equipment got broken mysteriously or stolen, that sort of thing. All of my men and I were working overtime to try to figure out what was going on and stop it, but we didn't have any luck in preventing anything; we just ended up fixing it when things went wrong. So a few weeks after all of _that_ started, we got another call from the prospective buyer.”

I watched his eyes narrow before he continued speaking. “That bastard insisted on meeting with the CEO again and repeated his previous offer. When reminded that the family wasn't interested in selling, he said that he was even willing to pay such a high price with the problems we'd been having. Which was pretty fucking strange considering that we hadn't been sharing information about what had been going on around the company with anyone.”

“Did you report the incidents to the police?” I asked, pencil poised to write as I also half-watched Kenpachi to note his reactions.

“Sure. Not that they were much help,” he continued, his look changing to annoyance. “When they found out who was attempting the buyout, they did mention that the corporation that has offered to purchase us is suspected of being mob-connected.”

“What?” I was definitely starting to think that I'd made a mistake. The moment I'd seen him, I should have turned back around and gone out for coffee instead. Not that I didn't want to help, but given that I'm just a one-person shop, the idea of standing up to some organized crime outfit on my own sounded not only ridiculous but practically suicidal.

He grinned a little grimly at my question. “I think you heard me all right, Kurosaki. Anyway, after the bastard let us know that he knew about what had been going on in the company, he said that it was such a shame that the CEO had no clear successor, because if something were to happen to him there'd just be a few older people left in the family, and they'd probably have a much different opinion. He said he'd give the CEO another month to think about it.”

I looked up again from my notes again. “Sounds like that was some sort of veiled threat.”

“Yeah, but since he didn't really come out and say it, there wasn't a whole lot we could do about it... _legally_ , anyway.” Kenpachi stared blackly into his coffee cup for a moment before taking another sip.

“So, what did you end up doing?” I asked.

“Well, I talked to the CEO and offered to go over and clean out the whole rat’s nest of them. After all, if they're criminals, it's not like they're going to report it to the police. It's not too different than a lot of the shit I did in the military, anyway.” He looked up with a rather bloodthirsty grin that I somehow couldn't help returning.

Then he sighed and slumped in his seat again. “Unfortunately, the CEO said that if we were dealing with the mob, it was likely they'd just send more people and do something worse in retaliation. He insisted the best way to take care of it was to go after the root of the problem. So we sent someone in undercover to try to get evidence so that we could get their company shut down.”

Looking up from my notebook, which I'd been scribbling in quickly, trying to keep up with Kenpachi's narrative, I'm sure I had a look of surprise on my face. “Who did you send? Someone with some experience, I hope.”

Kenpachi looked up at me briefly then, almost guiltily. “Well, we thought he did, anyway. We sent one of my security people and told him to get whatever he could on those bastards, enough so that we could turn our problem over to the police and have them handle it. So, he calls us a couple weeks later and says he has good news, that they're going to have this meeting in the next couple of weeks where all of their bigwigs get together and talk about all of their business. From what he said, everything's discussed openly, so that would probably be all we'd need to get all of them busted. He said he'd try to find out the time and place and let us know.”

He paused then and ran one large hand over his very short hair. He blew out a short breath as he looked up at me, I couldn't tell exactly what was going on in his expression, but there was definitely a deep thread of anger in there. “A couple days later, though, we got a call from the police. He'd been found beaten half to death in an alley. He's still in a coma, and they don't know if he's going to make it.”

I sat up in my chair a little, imagining what he'd probably seen, because unfortunately I'd seen that kind of thing before, too. “I'm really sorry to hear that.” I paused for a moment, since it seemed as if Kenpachi was getting his thoughts together. After a few moments I asked, “I'm guessing that brings us to where we are now?”

Nodding, he responded, “Yeah, I got the call two days ago. There hasn't been any change in his condition since then.”

“So,” I asked, and I could feel my eyes narrowing a little as I spoke, “what exactly do you see as my role in all of this?”

“We want you to finish the job my man started,” Kenpachi said, meeting my gaze with an equally hard one. “Find out when and where this meeting is taking place. We'd also like you to figure out some way to be there, and I think the CEO said he was willing to give you some kind of bonus if you could figure out a way to film it.”

I just shook my head as I looked back down at my notepad. _Sneak into the lion's den and photograph all the carcasses there. Right._ At the same time, however, I felt a little thrill in my guts as I thought about actually being able to help someone avoid a hostile takeover by the mob. Shaking my head again to try to throw off my more suicidal, glory-seeking self, I looked back up at Kenpachi. “I don't know,” I replied. “I'm definitely going to have to give this some thought. What you're talking about is a job so dangerous that it's already almost killed one person, so I'm not sure it sounds like a good risk.”

“Oh, come on,” Kenpachi said, and suddenly his bloodthirsty grin had returned. “I hear you're all about protecting the little guy from big scary monsters.”

I glared at him then. “Yeah, but there's only so much even _I_ can do. Like your boss told you, organized crime rings have a lot more resources than even most companies do. And they don't have to care about operating within the law, something that even the most corrupt of corporations at least has to give some thought to.”

He looked at me for a moment, suddenly solemn, then cracked a little grin as he nodded. “Well, I guess you'd have to be either a stupid fool or a desperate fool to say yes right off the bat to this job, so it sounds like you're smart enough,” he said, and then he was suddenly standing and cracking his knuckles, smiling widely. “I guess we can go on to the next test.”

Next test? I made a sound of disbelief. “Listen,” I said, “sit back down. Are you saying you want me to jump through some kind of hoops to get this job I'm not even sure I want to take?”

When he nodded and his grin started looking decidedly bloodthirsty again, I sighed quietly and tried to mask my annoyance. “Let me explain. Usually, when someone comes out here to talk to me about a job, we're both sizing each other up, and I understand that. People usually make their decision as we talk about the case and my general ideas of how to take care of things, or if they want more reassurance I have some clients that I can refer them to so they can get an idea of what I've done. I take it that's not enough for you?”

When he shook his head, I gritted my teeth before I answered. “So what's this next 'test' of yours?”

Kenpachi's bloodthirsty grin had grown. “The CEO told me that I could run you through your paces to see if I think you're tough enough to take on this job.”

I could feel my eyes narrowing again. “Judging from what I've heard so far, I'm guessing you want some sort of hands-on demonstration?”

“Yeah, that's the idea,” he replied as he stood, but I held him in place with a look as he started to step forwards.

“All right. If you want to spar, I'm fine with the idea, under certain conditions. No conditions, no match, understand?” I glared at him for a moment, waiting until I saw him nod in agreement. “All right. Condition number one, we are not fighting in my office. We'll do it on the roof. Number two, this is going to be a sparring match, by which I mean neither of us should end up with injuries requiring medical intervention to fix. If that ends up being the case, you have two choices – a) you or your company will pay all my bills, or b) I'm filing a police complaint and you're going to jail.”

I paused, waiting to hear some sort of response from Kenpachi before continuing. I didn't have to wait long before his laugh boomed through my office. “I'm really starting to like you, kid,” he said with a smile. “OK, fine. Anything else?”

Although I could feel the hair on the back of my neck standing up after his 'kid' comment, I chose to let it slide and tried not to growl as I kept on. “Yeah, there are a couple more things. If I do end up accepting this job, I'm going to start counting my time on the clock with your company from the minute you walked in to my office today, since you've wasted so much of my time. If you have to clear that with your CEO, do it.”

“No, I think he'll be fine with that,” Kenpachi replied, seeming perfectly calm now, but I could feel a strange sense of energy behind that, as if he was already anticipating the upcoming fight.

“All right then. One last thing – since you're in the security business, I probably don't have to tell you that looking beat up is bad for business. So, when we spar, any part of my body is fair game, except for my face. Do we have an agreement?”

Kenpachi stuck out a big hand to shake mine. “Agreed. Let's get to it.”

__________________________________________________________________________

He'd left his coat and tie on the back of a chair in my office, and I now faced Kenpachi across a carpet of tar paper. I glanced to the side as I flicked the rest of my cigarette off the roof and caught sight of the skeleton of the building they'd begun construction on across the street. The view from the roof wasn't overly interesting, since a lot of the neighborhood consisted of squat warehouses and the like, but you could see for a good distance and it was overly warm for a fall afternoon, so I couldn't complain.

I studied my opponent as he rolled up his shirt sleeves to reveal powerful looking forearms. From the way he'd moved and how he looked, I was certain he lifted weights in his spare time, and it appeared to have made him strong. He was at least as tall as Renji, and he looked like he out massed me by quite a bit. As we began to circle one another, I considered the fact that the martial arts taught in the military are usually hard styles, something he could take good advantage of. One way to counter strength is a greater strength, but although I'm a lot stronger than I look, I didn't think I could overpower Kenpachi. _In that case_ , I thought, _the best way to defeat strength is by yielding_.

Pivoting on one foot, I turned out of the way of Kenpachi's big fist, which had been headed straight for my chest. I couldn't help but grin as he frowned and drew his hand back. The other thing that's deceptive about me on the battlefield is my speed. Although Kenpachi was fast for someone his size, I'm almost unnaturally fast. Tatsuki used to complain about it when we first sparred together, but now she just grins and says that I'm one of the few people who can give her a good workout anymore. These days, however, she's good enough that I think she's just trying to be kind.

I drew back a little as he came at me again and I brought my hands up. As he threw another punch at me, I redirected it to one side and then brought my palm up under Kenpachi's chin, just touching it. I grinned as I drew back a little, seeing the frustration evident on his face. He tried another blow with his fist and I blocked it while hitting out with the end of the blocking arm, softly smacking Kenpachi's neck. Looking positively furious now, he circled me again, obviously trying to find an opening.

When Tatsuki and I’d been in high school together, there had been sort of a legend that circulated for a while about how she had stalked this old man for weeks, waiting outside his door and following him around until he'd finally agreed to take her on as a student. I don't know if it's true, but I did later find out that before Tatsuki learned Wing Chun, there was only one guy in the area that had known it.

The sticking hands she'd practiced with me worked beyond my expectations in dealing with Kenpachi. His movements seemed fairly predictable, so I didn't have much trouble mirroring what he did and evading the force of his blows. I'd only had the equivalent of maybe a year's training from Tatsuki in Wing Chun, so Kenpachi did get a few good hits in on me, but by the middle of the fight I could probably have largely immobilized him, having carefully chosen shots to his kidneys, elbows, knees, and a number of pressure points. I was having more trouble avoiding his kicks because I hadn't had enough training to learn sticking feet, but so far all I'd gotten out of his kicks were bruised shins. That made me grimace, however, thinking of how hard he'd probably be kicking me if we weren't just sparring. Hell, I might well have been on one knee if he were kicking me for real.

Anyway, as we continued the match, I felt myself get to the point where I could follow his movements almost perfectly in order to redirect and avoid them, now pushing his fist away from me so that I could move into his body to deliver a light strike to one of the pressure points along his side. I couldn't really redirect his kicks, but I was getting to the point that I could dodge a lot of them, and I couldn't help but smirk at his obvious frustration. A moment later, however, I gasped at the quick fist coming right for my face from below. I threw my head backwards and to one side and was mostly successful in avoiding the blow, but my head rocked back as the edge of his fist skimmed my jaw, and I knew I'd have a bruise there the next day. I gave him a death glare as I fell back a step and watched his face break into a grin.

May I just take a moment here to say how much I dislike guns? I know, it seems like I'm getting a bit off track, unless you consider that at this point in the story, I'm definitely angry enough to shoot this guy, but don't worry, I'll get back to the fight in a minute. Anyway, guns. I think the reason I don't like them is that I've been in business long enough to see what they take away from people. Spouses, parents, or children injured or killed by people with guns. People killed accidentally, or killing themselves using guns. People threatening one another with firearms – I've seen all of these things at one time or another. I'm not enough of a fool not to own one, given my line of work, but I judge my personal level of danger by whether or not I think I'm going to need one, and try to avoid cases where I'm definitely going to have to carry a gun.

There is something I like a lot, however, and that's knives. Knives and I have been good friends for a long time, and I think we'll be close until I'm too weak to hold one up. There's something simple, clean, and elegant about a knife, plus it never jams or runs out of ammo. The most you'll need to do is occasionally sharpen it and it's happy. Also, although it isn't something I've mentioned up to this point, if I'm clothed, I'm armed.

So, when Kenpachi decided to break our agreement, I have to admit I had a moment where I just saw red. “You son of a bitch,” I snarled, while he grinned.

The next moment, however, I felt only a cold certainty and slipped my hand just inside my pocket as I watched Kenpachi lean his head back with laughter. I thumbed back the quick-release sheath for the punch dagger I always carry on my key ring and when my hand came back out of my pocket, I was ready. The blade is only an inch or so long, but its chunky thickness and flat, spade-like shape make it more than adequate to do significant damage wherever applied.

I quickly moved back in close to Kenpachi's body and raised my fist up as his head started to come back down. “I wouldn't move just now, if I were you,” I said calmly, holding the wickedly pointed tip of the dagger pressed lightly over his jugular.

“Fuck,” he said, and I noted that he was holding his whole body rigidly in place. “You suckered me, kid.”

“I didn't say anything about using weapons,” I replied, still glaring at him as I ran my thumb over my jaw line. “I did specifically say no face hits, though.”

“Oh, come on,” Kenpachi said, his voice rough with amusement and his mouth starting to form a grin again, “that was just to test your reactions.”

Letting out a snort of annoyance, I relented and moved away, quickly re-sheathing my dagger. Sadly enough, I have to admit that the way Kenpachi had growled out that last line had stirred something in me that wasn't anger, but as I reflexively gave him the once over as he relaxed his posture, in my mental comparisons of him to Renji he kept coming up short. Hell, given the fact that it had taken me _this long_ to even give him the once over made it painfully clear to me just how bad I had it for the tattooed redhead.

Shaking my head to get my thoughts back to the matter at hand, I focused on Kenpachi again, watching him move back into his ready stance. “So,” he asked, “you want to continue?”

I shook my head as I straightened up. “No. I figure you must have made your mind up by now as to whether or not you think I'm worthy for this job, so I'm not going to keep on, because you seem like you're the kind of guy who likes to leave a lot of marks.”

“What's the problem, princess?” he asked, a calculating expression now on his face. “You have a big date tonight?”

Refusing to even acknowledge the comment that was obviously designed to throw me into a rage and make me continue fighting the idiot, I tried to even out my breathing even further. “Yeah, actually I do,” I replied, making a masterful attempt at a calm tone, “and I'd rather not look like a punching bag tonight because at least part of it will involve me being naked.”

Kenpachi gazed at me quietly for a moment, the look in his eyes seeming to go through several changes before he spoke again. He shrugged as he finally said, “Fair enough. And yeah, you're right, I have already made up my mind.”

“Oh? And what's the verdict?” I asked as we headed for the door to take us off the roof.

“You're tough enough, all right,” he said with a nod. “I'm not the one who'll be making the final decision, though.”

I let that pass until we got down to my office again and he was shrugging his suit coat back on. “So, what's the next step here? Or are you expecting me to want to take on this job without even knowing who I'm working for or who I'm up against?”

Kenpachi looked over at me, and I thought I saw the ghost of a smile before he answered. “As far as who you might be working for, do you know where Caesar's Cafe is?”

“Yeah,” I answered. Anyone who had any kind of shady business in this town or in Karakura knew where it was. It was actually right along the snaking border between the two towns, and it was a favorite lunch spot for the nearby office and warehouse workers. The real draw of the place, and the reason that it was sort of infamous in both towns was the small curtained rooms along both sides of the restaurant. It was there that the those who ran 'legitimate' businesses and those who could provide the illegal services that those business people always seemed to want would meet, under cover of secrecy. I ground my teeth as I glared at Kenpachi, angry that they were trying to group me in with the people that they were purportedly trying to stop a takeover attempt against.

“Relax, kid. I think when you meet my boss you'll see why he wanted to meet there. Be there at noon. We made reservations in your name.”

“Thanks,” I replied through gritted teeth, and I could feel my eyes narrowing as I looked at him. He and whoever his boss was were really pissing me off.

He grinned a little harder as he saw my anger. “As far as who you'll be up against, I can tell you that. Start looking into a company by the name of Infinium Logistics, if you're interested in this job.”

I snorted, still pissed off. “If I'm not there by 12:15, don't expect me.”

“See you tomorrow,” Kenpachi said with a sly grin and closed the door behind his retreating figure.

After he left, I just sat for a moment, the end of my pencil tapping on my notepad. I made a few more notes and then put the pad of paper in a bag along with a few other things and drove to a library across town that I knew had a large number of computers open for use. As I waited my turn, I looked at my scribblings so far and added a few things. I'd never regretted following my gut when it told me to be paranoid in matters related to cases, and as I'd thought about this one, I decided using a public machine to do research on a company that was known to have ties to organized crime would be wise. I didn't know how many hackers there were working for the mob these days, but I'd have to bet they had at least a few.

A few hours later I left, not much enlightened but newly curious as to the case that I only had partial information about. The website for the company itself seemed like a big red flag to me. The setup was spare, almost as if they'd put up a site only because it was expected. They were a private corporation, so they didn't have to do public filings of their finances or anything like that, but the information they were willing to publicize about themselves, even with that in mind, seemed laughably slim. They did post the names of their top three company officers, however. Sosuke Aizen was their President and CEO, and in his picture he was gently smiling, wearing heavy glasses, and his dark hair was cut a bit long. He was obviously trying for a benevolent look, but there was something in his eyes, however, that chilled me to the bone. Their CIO and Vice President was Gin Ichimaru, a man with light colored hair and a creepy, insincere smile that seemed to swallow up his eyes entirely. The other Vice President and CFO was Kaname Tousen, a handsome black man wearing dark glasses and a guarded expression. He was definitely the least creepy looking of the three, but he still managed to look like a thug.

I'd taken another look at each of them before I closed the website, and the only thing that struck me was that something about Gin was familiar. I couldn't seem to think of where I'd seen his face or heard his name before, however, so I just let it go for the moment to let my brain work on it, thinking that eventually the answer would occur to me.

I had a little more luck as I continued looking at some of the subsequent hits for the company. According to a short article from a local business magazine, Infinium Logistics had been on a bit of a buying spree over the last couple of years, snapping up five smaller businesses during that time. I found it odd that there seemed to be no kind of pattern to the acquisitions they'd made, however. They'd bought three manufacturing firms – one that made computer chips, another that manufactured specialty packaging for new products, and one that made small promotional items – a company that did specialized pharmaceutical research and development, and a chain of local bakeries. I stared at the article for a while, trying to think what might constitute a business strategy that would connect those purchases, but couldn't think of one. Nothing else of much worth came up on the search; a few job advertisements surfaced and there were rumors of the type that I'd already heard from Kenpachi on various disreputable chat boards.

After I left the library, however, I found myself at loose ends. I took time to do some errands, including getting more groceries to fill the refrigerator back up, but shortly after dinner I found myself sitting on the couch, looking at the clock and willing it to go faster, much to my internal embarrassment. Shaking my head at myself, I quickly changed into workout gear and drove over to one of the Arisawa family's martial arts studios. It seemed like I'd timed it just right that day, and I could see Tatsuki over the heads of the students bowing to her to signify that the class had just finished. She gave a sly smile as she saw me and gestured for me to come in.

By the time I got home I felt justifiably tired. We'd sparred hard for a couple of hours, and I knew I was going to have a few new bruises, despite my words to Kenpachi earlier about not wanting to look like someone's punching bag. It had been a couple of weeks since I'd had time to go by, though, so I found I didn't mind. Stumbling into bed after a shower, it didn't take me long to fall dead asleep.

It was the soft kiss at the base of my neck that woke me up; I hadn't even heard him come in. I couldn't help but sigh as a shiver ran through me in response.

“So you're finally awake,” Renji murmured just under my ear, and the sound as well as the sensation of his lips moving on my skin made me shudder once more.

“How did it go tonight?” My voice was low and barely audible, and I could feel my face heating up when I realized I'd said the first thing I could think of because I just wanted to hear Renji's voice again.

“Busy from the minute I got there to the time we closed. Just one of those nights that everyone seems to want to get ink at once.” I couldn't help but moan this time as I felt the little chuckle he gave and his breath against my neck. “How about you? Did you finish the case?”

It was a little while before I could assemble enough brain cells to answer, and I found myself blinking since my eyes had still been closed. As I opened them, I saw that the alarm clock across the room read a little after 2AM, and then my body stiffened as I gasped, feeling Renji flick his thumbnail across one of my nipples, then pinch it tight and roll it between his fingers. I cursed under my breath and tried to focus on what I was supposed to be answering.

“Yeah, it's done and everyone's happy, strangely enough,” I finally managed, breathing way more heavily than such a reply required. “The minute I got back to the office, though, I found someone else waiting for me.”

As I woke up a little more and shifted my body, I pressed against Renji more fully and had to bite back a groan. His naked body was laid out behind mine, and the heat seemed to be coming off him like a furnace. Renji could be uncomfortable to sleep with during the summer sometimes, because he always seemed to radiate so much warmth, but this time of year I couldn't get close enough. I also realized that I couldn't move very far since Renji had wrapped himself around me, holding me in place. I'd been lying on one side, and somehow he'd figured out a way to slide both arms around me, one still teasing my nipples and the other now sliding lower on my chest. I was hard now, hard enough to feel the slight movement of the covers sliding against my cock in vivid detail, and I could feel Renji's dick twitch against one ass cheek, the hard metal of his piercing pressed tight against my skin.

“Oh, so you have a new case?” Renji asked against the back of my neck, and I was hard pressed for a few seconds to remember what the hell he was asking about.

“Mmmmh...uh, maybe. I don't know, though. The guy I talked to was arrogant and annoying and didn't give much detail, so...mmm...I don't know if I'm taking the job. They want me to meet them for...uh...for lunch tomorrow so we can talk about it.” By now, I could barely focus on anything other than what Renji was doing. One of his hands had fastened on to my cock, and he tightened his grip around me momentarily, making me let out another embarrassing noise. He'd started to move one of his legs between mine, and I couldn't help but wrap my top leg around the back of his to pull myself against him more tightly. He growled at this and ground against me, his cock fully hard now, to which I answered by tilting my ass back at him. Renji wound himself around me tighter then with a groan.

“Fuck, you drive me crazy, Ichigo,” he muttered, before sinking his teeth into my shoulder with enough force to make me cry out. I was panting now, and I writhed against him, wanting to grab on to him. Another part of me, though, was shamefully turned on by the fact that I could barely move because Renji was completely wrapped around me, and I groaned low as he chuckled when my cock jumped at my realization.

Unwilling to give myself over to the dark craving completely, however, I spoke up for the sane part of myself. “Let go of me so that I can turn around and touch you.”

“No,” he replied, low and quiet. I mentally cursed my shiver at that and tried to focus as he continued speaking. “I don't want to disturb your sleep too much, because I know you have a big day tomorrow. Just relax and let me do everything, and I'll make you come so hard you pass out again. You can pretend it's all just a dream.”

His hands were still moving as he talked, making me shudder and bite my lip. He'd shifted me from lying on my side to being tilted against his body slightly so that he could move both his hands freely. One hand was lazily spreading the pre-come I'd dripped on myself over my belly, and the other was fondling my balls. I was suddenly glad I was still biting my lip, because the noises I wanted to make now would probably have been more than embarrassing, but Renji started speaking again, and for a moment that was all I could focus on.

“So, since it's your dream, what should I say?” His voice was so low and resonant now that I could feel it against my back as he talked and against my ear just before he paused and caught my earlobe between his teeth, then closed his lips and sucked on it.

I made a thin, high noise that I barely recognized as mine before I heard myself speaking, low and affected. “Tell me how much you want me.” I wanted to hit myself in the face then, for blurting things out before thinking _again_ and for sounding like I was some sort of soap opera star, but the only hand I was at all free to move was currently gripping Renji's waist, pulling him closer to me, and I really didn't want to let go. I was glad the room was dimly lit, however, because my face got so hot that I'm sure Renji wouldn't have missed my blush if it had been any brighter.

To my surprise, however, not only did he not laugh, he groaned and held me tighter, his head dipping to place a sucking kiss and a nip where my neck and shoulder met. “Fuck, Ichigo, I want you so bad that if I could spend every minute here in bed with you, buried in your hot body or just wrapped around you, I'd do it in a fucking heartbeat.”

One hand trailed back up my chest, grazing along my ribcage, and as he kissed me on the back of my neck, I shuddered as I felt what he was saying in the careful way he touched and pleased me, and it left me unable even to moan. He ground his cock against my ass again, and I couldn't help but flatten myself back against him, feeling his dick so hot against me that I swore it was branding my skin.

“It can be fucking embarrassing,” he murmured into my ear as he slowly stroked my cock with one hand and continued to play with my nipples with the other. “I can't tell you how many times I've thought of you at the wrong time and then had a big problem to take care of.” Renji thrust himself against the back of me as he said that, and I couldn't help but smile. “Hell, just looking in the direction of the bathroom at work can do it, when I think about how you were that day, but then when I think of you here, with that look you get just after you come, curled up in bed under the covers...fuck, Ichigo, you're irresistible.”

He was thrusting my cock through his hand with just the right rhythm now, and although he was slowly driving me insane with the sensation, I could also feel myself blushing again at his words. I couldn't believe I'd even asked him to tell me that, but now I was secretly glad I had, even though another part of me felt like a complete and utter sap for doing it. Suddenly I didn't care, though, because Renji was almost growling in my ear again, and I bit my lip against the little noise I wanted to make when I heard him.

“This is your dream, though, so what do you want me to do?”

I was panting now after having heard that, obscene pictures running through my mind at top speed and making pure heat seem to flow through my veins in place of blood, but there was really only one thing I wanted so bad that I could taste it. “I want you in me, Renji.”

Sadly, I'd known what I was going to say even before the words were out of my mouth. In the back of my mind, I knew I should feel humiliated to ask someone to fuck me like that, but I was way too turned on to think too much about it. The thing that really made me wonder about my sanity, though, was the fact that although I'd certainly done my share of bottoming before and liked it, I'd never craved it the way I did before I met Renji. Probably because no one else had ever made me half crazy and nearly pass out from pleasure the way he did.

Somewhere in my fuzzy mind, I realized that Renji was moving away from me now, and I wasn't pleased. “Hey,” I began, and I know I was about to complain, but he silenced me with a chuckle, wrapping his legs tighter around mine.

“I'm not going anywhere,” he interrupted. “I just needed some of this.”

Suddenly, I could feel his slick fingers sliding between my ass cheeks and I couldn't help the muffled moan I let out in response. I lost the power of human speech as he thrust two fingers into me, but unfortunately I didn't lose the ability to make noise. Renji just seemed to love it like always, though, twisting his fingers in me and mumbling into my ear, “Yeah, that's it, let me know how I make you feel, Ichigo.”

Somehow, I managed to glance over my shoulder at him because I wanted to see the look he gets in his eye when he watches me writhe under him as he works me over, but before I could really look at him, his lips were against mine. I gasped at the heat in his kiss and I sucked on his lower lip as he pulled back, which caused him to thrust his fingers into me harder, twisting around to find my spot. My back arched and my head flew back a moment later as he hit it and he growled at the wanton cry I couldn't stop from coming out of my mouth.

“Fuck yeah, that's it, Ichigo. You feel so fucking good inside, so hot and tight that you make me want to come just touching you like this.” He ground his cock against me as he talked, maybe so that I'd know he wasn't kidding, and I felt another jolt of heat run through me as his dick twitched when I tightened around his fingers. “Fuck, Ichigo,” he continued breathlessly, and I cried out again as he pushed a third finger in me.

Renji kept finger-fucking me, strong and so good it took my breath away, until he made me so desperate for him that I wanted to beg. It took me a while to actually be able to form words, though. “Renji,” I finally managed, “I need more. Now.”

I expected him to laugh at me, but instead he groaned and ground his cock against me. He felt so hot I expected it would set my skin on fire. “Yeah, OK,” he finally said, and I felt my own dick twitch as I heard how low and affected he sounded.

But then, after having been completely surrounded by Renji since the moment I woke up to suddenly having my only contact with him reduced to one of his feet loosely wrapped around my ankle, it was too much. I groaned in displeasure and rolled onto my stomach on one of the now haphazardly placed pillows, desperate for some kind of pressure on my cock but unwilling to touch myself because I didn't want to come yet. I wanted Renji to touch me and make me come, and just that thought was almost too explosive. I found myself thrusting against the bed and moaning as I fantasized about it. The friction felt good, but it felt even better as I imagined him touching me and fucking me. I groaned out his name as I thrust once more, but then it occurred to me that Renji seemed to be taking an awfully long time to put a condom on.

I turned my head to look at him and I couldn't help but smile wickedly as I saw his hand on his cock, obviously caught in the act of lubing up but frozen and staring at me instead. Since my inadvertent show had apparently gotten his attention, I thought I'd turn it up another notch. I continued looking back at him as I spread my legs and tilted my ass up.

“Come on, Renji,” I said in the sultriest voice I could muster. “Fuck me.”

“You little _tease_ ,” he growled as he grabbed one of my thighs to pull my legs open even farther and settle himself between them. “You'd better believe I'll fuck you.”

As I felt the huge, blunt head of his cock against me, my breath caught for a moment as my body remembered again just how big he was, and Renji must have felt me tense under him. “Relax, Ichigo,” he murmured into my ear as he spread his body over mine, and I felt my tension start to slip away as I sighed and angled my hips up to him.

“That's it,” he almost growled as he pushed, and I moaned as I felt myself open up to him.

As always, it took him a little while to ease into me, and the feeling of being so fucking full almost undid me. I was panting, groaning, and nearly wild by the time I felt his full length in me, and I ground myself back against him.

He swore under his breath as a result. “Just stay put for a minute,” he growled, one hand pinning my hip securely to the bed. I could feel his cock twitch inside me and I held still, a sly smile growing on my face as I realized he was trying not to come. A moment later my mind was blank and I was gasping as he pulled out a bit, only to push back inside me. I cried out as he did, feeling his piercing rubbing something that made my toes curl.

“You like that?” he asked, voice hoarse in my ear, and fuck if that didn't make me moan again. “Tell me.”

“Fuck, you bastard, you know I like it,” I managed, barely able to speak, but the rough words I was trying to choke out got cut off by my own cry as he thrust into me again.

“Tell me how much you like it or I'm going to stop,” he threatened, and then kept very still.

I tried moving against him to encourage him to keep going, but Renji tightened his hold on me, keeping me in place. I ground my hips again, making a noise of frustration in my throat but still enjoying the friction between my cock and the pillow under it. As I turned my head back a little to see Renji's expression in order to figure out why he was being so annoying, I was suddenly hit with the need to see him look the way he had when he watched me before, the desire on his face so clear that it had hit me straight in the gut.

“Yeah, I like it when you fill me with that big cock of yours,” I purred, trying to keep my tone low and enticing. “I like it so much that it makes me want it all fucking day.”

I felt a ragged bolt of heat shoot through me as Renji gave a deep groan and started thrusting into me again, fast and jerky. “Fuck, Ichigo, don't stop,” he said, breathlessly.

Another look at him over my shoulder just fed the spiraling rise of raw heat in me. He looked half gone, biting his lip as his head stretched back, tattoos highlighting his outstretched neck, which was still and visible through the hair hanging down around his face. My eyes lingered on the ink on his chest and arms as I gasped against the sensation of his next thrust into me. I continued speaking when he opened his eyes again, the look in them pleading. “Yeah, if I could figure out a way to interview clients while I had you spread out on the desk so I could ride your cock, I'd definitely do it. I don't know how many people would want to hire me, though, if one of my working requirements was to always have your dick deep in me.”

I couldn't help my evil grin as Renji shuddered at my words and cursed under his breath. He thrust into me a few more times and then pulled out and threw himself down on the bed, yanking me on top of him. “Want to see you ride me. Want to see your face when you come.”

Even though my thighs were shaking now and my body wanted nothing more than to quickly impale myself on him again, I forced myself to go slowly, getting more lube and stroking it over Renji's cock with no particular hurry. “I think you just want to see this huge dick of yours disappearing into my ass from a different angle.”

He was cursing again as he grabbed my arm and pulled me up on him, then used his other hand to position his cock just right. I think we both groaned as I sank down on him.

“I like that, too,” Renji growled, both hands on my hips as he moved me up and down on his cock, slamming his hips up to meet mine. I tried to control the movement and speed more, but his grip on me was too strong, so I just had to move along with him. The pace was so fast that I could barely breathe, much less speak, but Renji wasn't having any trouble with that.

“That's it, Ichigo, let go for me. You look so hot when we're fucking that I can barely hold it together. I want to see you come while you're riding my dick. Touch yourself, jerk off for me.”

He grunted at the shudder that ran through me as I grabbed my cock. The moment I touched myself, the need to get off hit me so hard that I could barely hold it together. I was so far gone that for a breath I thought just that touch would make me come, so I started stroking myself hard right off the bat. Renji had teased me for so long that my cock was already slick with pre-come, and it felt so good as I jacked off that I couldn't help making all of those noises he liked so much. I could vaguely hear Renji talking me through it as my orgasm overwhelmed me like a tidal wave.

I was lying on my side when I could sense the outside world once more, and I groaned as I felt Renji wiping me down with a towel. Rolling onto my back, I grinned drunkenly up at him and felt myself smiling wider as he grinned back. I was about to say something, but forgot all about it as Renji leaned down and kissed me.

I gasped as I felt a jolt when he did, but this time it was in my chest. It felt hot and overfull but I found the feeling easy enough to ignore as Renji deepened the kiss, tasting me with an intensity that said he never wanted anything else in his mouth. His kisses while we fucked made me melt with the heat, but this time I was melting for a different reason. I started thinking about how good I felt when I was with him, and how I didn't want it to stop, but as Renji pulled back, still smiling down at me, I tried to reason with myself. _Just appreciate it for what it is_ , I thought. _These sorts of things never last._ That didn't prevent my heart from tripping over itself for a few seconds as Renji settled beside me with a satisfied sigh and pulled the covers over the both of us, one arm holding me close while his legs intertwined with mine.

Needless to say, I had no particular wish to get out of bed the next morning, but I finally pushed myself out. After I finished my shower, I tried to get dressed quietly since my closet was in the bedroom. Knowing that I was likely meeting with a business client that day, I decided it made sense to dress on the formal side, so I chose my grey suit and paired it with a royal blue shirt and dark navy tie. As I was looking in the mirror over the dresser to tie it, I could see Renji's reflection stir in bed.

“Mmmmm...you look good,” I heard from behind me, the tone nearly a growl. “Good enough to eat.”

I turned towards him, still working on my tie. “Just go back to sleep, you,” I replied, trying to ignore the quick shot of heat that ran through me and made my cock twitch. As a result, I didn't manage a tone that sounded anywhere near threatening. He chuckled and I watched his eyes slide shut.

For some reason, however, I couldn't force myself to turn back to the mirror, instead sort of mechanically fumbling with my tie while I let my gaze run over Renji's body. The man usually managed to produce enough body heat to warm a small house, so he often got too hot under the covers. That day, it had resulted in only about half his body being under the blankets, so I took a long look up his back to his face. He'd turned it in my direction and I continued looking at his peaceful expression framed with crimson hair that was wild with sleep. The thing that attracted my attention downwards again, along with his strong thighs, was the sight of his delicious looking, muscular ass.

“Are you staring at me?” I heard then, and my glance jerked upwards to meet his one eye that I could see. He was smiling gently, almost seductively, and I could feel my face start to heat up.

“Renji,” I growled, trying to control myself and not ruin the line of my suit. “I'm trying to get ready for work over here.”

His eye slid shut again, and Renji let out a little noise that sounded regretful. I masterfully managed not to continue staring at him as I turned to the mirror to sort out the tangled mess that my tie had become, but I found my eyes continually wandering back to his reflection as I finished dressing.

Hell, if you'd seen him, I don't think you could have blamed me for getting so distracted by his hot body, and those tattoos actually pointing at his ass didn't help in the least. Of course, now that you know how obsessed I am by Renji's perfect ass, I'm sure you're going to ask if I've ever topped him. Normally, I'd tell you to keep your fucking nosy questions to yourself, but, well, the subject just hasn't come up, frankly.

Laugh if you want, but when I found out that he'd previously dated girls, I figured I shouldn't be pushy. I mean, I've been with guys before that were obviously mentally uncomfortable with the idea of dating another guy and didn't want to do anything that they considered _too gay_ as a result. Cause you know, like somehow having your lips wrapped around my cock is less gay than participating in anal sex. Yeah, that's me rolling my eyes. Anyway, you get the idea, so with Renji I figured that I'd just go with the flow and see where it went. Of course, now that I've experienced firsthand the awesome skill the man has, I'd be more than glad to ride his cock from here to the end of time, but every time I see him all splayed out like that, it gives me ideas about that luscious ass of his.

I can just see how he'd look in the half-light, all spread out on the bed for me, his eyes dark and half open as he’d give me a wanton look and run his hand up his chest, one finger traveling along the edge of his ribcage and then along one fang of his tattoos. He'd have his hands behind his head now and his hair would be spread out all around him like liquid sin. He’d bring one knee up as he spreads those gorgeous thighs wider and tilts his ass. And then I can hear him asking me, no, _demanding_ that I fuck him.

Or maybe he wouldn't want to move slow. I can see him pushing me down and straddling me and making me watch as he finger-fucks himself, quick but deep, his head thrown back and biting his lip. Every muscle in his body would be taut with concentration and desire as he touched himself, and my eyes would be glued to him, especially when he started stroking himself, too. Fuck, I'd have to use every bit of self-control I had not to come when he finally sank down on my cock. I just know he'd be as hot on the inside as he is outside. I'd be lucky if he didn't burn me alive.

...Anyway, as you can probably tell, Renji has been starring in the private reels in my head on those lonely nights when I have to get off on my own. I've even had a few dreams with him in them, to be honest. So, as you can probably tell, the answer to the question I tried not to answer earlier is a resounding no. At least for now...

Seeing Renji all spread out like that in the bed that morning had drawn my thoughts onto that track, so I can only vaguely remember stumbling through breakfast and transcribing notes from a few of my recent cases into their proper case files. When I got to the task of putting together a few invoices that needed to go out, I made sure to review them a few times apiece in order to make sure I didn't fuck them up due to my distraction. I'd mostly snapped out of it by the time I needed to leave, since I'd decided I might as well go to at least hear their pitch and eat a free lunch, and I lit a cigarette as I left the office on my way there.

As I'd mentioned, Caesar's is near the border between Rukongai and Karakura, and I could definitely see that as I went in, spotting equal numbers of dockworkers and office workers eating right next to one another. The main dining room is mostly chrome and polished dark wood; the tables in the center, with their chrome edged tabletops, were about three-quarters full now at noontime, but the booths around the edge of the floor were already filled. I remembered the food on the menu going from the completely simple, like grilled cheese sandwiches, all the way up to some pretty gourmet looking entrees, or at least it had been the one or two times I'd been to the place before on business.

What I didn't like seeing when I got there was the look on the guy's face at the front when I told him I had a reservation for Kurosaki. I nearly bit my tongue as I said it because just mouthing the words made me want to grind my teeth at those goddamned assuming bastards. I had to hold myself back again as I glanced over at the man and he was giving me a look like we were both conspirators in some sort of crime. I clenched my fists as I followed him along the right side of the restaurant to the third curtained doorway and he showed me into a small room with a table that would sit four comfortably and six if absolutely necessary. The window that looked out over the parking lot was the kind that you could see out of but not into, as I knew from glancing at them when I parked.

“Can I get you anything while you're waiting for the other diners, sir?” I couldn't help glaring at the guy. His voice sounded like he was happy to kiss the asses of people he thought were probably criminals all day long. Hell, he'd even grabbed a waitress who'd been passing by to take care of seating the rest of the large lunchtime crowd while he brought me here personally. I could feel my eyes narrow as I decided to torture him a little.

“Can you smoke here?” I asked, trying to sound innocent. You can't really smoke in most of the public places in this town anymore, but the guy looked like he'd cave in to the pressure.

“Yes, sir,” he finally said, although I could tell by the look on his face that he'd rather I hadn't asked him that.

Now I was beginning to feel a little sorry for him, but I really did want another smoke right now. “Good. Could you bring me an ashtray, then? And some coffee?” I replied, belatedly realizing that I hadn't drunk as much as I usually did this morning due to my distractedness.

“Certainly, sir.” He disappeared quickly then, as if relieved to go.

I chose a seat where my back wasn't to the doorway or the window, just in case, and looked the room over a little more closely. There were tablecloths on the table in here and cloth napkins, and the silverware looked a cut better than the usual for a restaurant. Another thing I noticed was the way the vent just over the table ran, continuously and quietly. The quiet whir it gave off reminded me of a white noise generator, and it would obviously cover the sounds of whatever conversation went on in the room.

Suddenly, however, I noted that the curtains at the front of the room were moving and then they opened to reveal someone dressed in what looked like an old-fashioned opera cape with the hood up. A moment later, when the person took the hood down, I stood up in surprise to see Byakuya Kuchiki appear. He looked at me calmly as I stared at him in disbelief. A moment later, as I began to say something about obviously being in the wrong place and heading for the door, I was cut off on both fronts as I watched Kenpachi appear through the curtain, grinning his dangerous grin.

“No, Kurosaki, you're in the right place,” he told me, obviously taking pleasure in my discomfort.

“You son of a bitch, no wonder you didn't want to tell me who you worked for.” My glare encompassed both of them, but Kenpachi only chuckled in return. Byakuya sighed as if he'd had a trying day and took the cloak off, hanging it up on the coat rack in the corner before taking a seat.

“Mr. Kurosaki. If you're interested in the job, please sit down so that we can discuss it. If you aren't, please go ahead and leave.” He met my eyes with seemingly calm grey ones, but I thought I could detect a storm somewhere behind that placid exterior.

For a moment I felt strangely indecisive, but after a little while, my natural curiosity won out. “All right, I'll at least hear what you have to say since I've taken the time to come out here,” I finally replied, sitting back down and looking warily at Byakuya and Kenpachi.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> From the case files of Ichigo Kurosaki, P.I. If I had to summarize the last few days, I'd recommend not taking on cases from people you've previously considered enemies, staying away from shady characters who can get shadier information and women who seem to be able to read your mind, and avoiding getting involved in old feuds. But, hey, this is how I get paid. I do recommend saying yes when the right person asks you if you're on the menu, though...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, All! Please note that this piece was written as sort of a continuation of an earlier piece that I and friends had written during a round-robin, which you can find using these links: [Part 1](http://writerx75.livejournal.com/18541.html) and [Part 2](http://writerx75.livejournal.com/18875.html#cutid1). PLEASE read that one first, since there are parts of this one that won't make sense without reading that one, but I didn't feel right about re-posting that one here, since I didn't write the whole piece myself.

“I have to admit, I am wondering what you think you can say to convince me to work for you,” I said as I bent my cigarette to my lighter, then snapped the lighter closed.

We hadn't really started talking since the waiter had come in close on the heels of my two surprise dining companions, so we'd quickly ordered some lunch just in time for my coffee and ashtray to arrive. Byakuya had given me a disapproving look as I'd lit up, a look I'm sure struck fear in the hearts of his employees, to which I couldn't help answering with a smirk. He let out a little sigh, as if telling himself that this was his punishment for being forced to deal with mere mortals, and handed me a file folder.

“This is some of the confidential information that we requested the police share with us about Infinium Logistics,” Byakuya began in a low, confident tone. He had a good voice. Under other circumstances I'd have said he had sort of a sexy voice, but considering everything that had happened so far I was way too pissed to be able to appreciate it.

I flipped the file folder open as I put sugar in my coffee. There’d been a history of complaints against the logistics company in the past five years or so, but none of the follow ups had been brought to closure. At a rough count, it seemed that the majority of complaints were for human trafficking. The couple of reports that existed were fairly detailed accounts of people who'd managed to escape but previous to that had been forced into laboring for shady companies for little pay in a form of indentured servitude that (not surprisingly) was never paid off, or a more overt servitude as prostitutes. According to those few who had managed to get away, the usual way out of this arrangement was death. Since none of the complaints had ever been brought to trial, due to the complainants disappearing, my guess was that even if you could escape, it was unlikely you'd live anyway.

I closed my eyes for a moment as I took the first sip of coffee, because it was good – a rich roast that I'd somehow managed to add just the right amount of sugar to. After a moment I went on reading and found some reports about the transport and distribution of illegal guns and drugs, which I figured pretty much rounded out the sorts of things people usually wanted to break the law to get and were willing to pay high prices for. None of these reports had ever come to any sort of prosecutable offense either, since any evidence or witnesses inevitably seemed to disappear before anything could come to trial. I stirred my coffee and took a sip as I pushed the folder back across the table at Kuchiki.

“They seem like some really nasty customers. Good luck with them,” I said evenly.

We were interrupted momentarily as the waiter arrived with food, some sort of stir-fry for Byakuya, a big steak for Kenpachi, and a sandwich for me. I rolled my eyes as I watched Kenpachi start to inhale his steak, to which he just replied with a toothy grin.

“So, you're not at all interested?” Byakuya asked after a few minutes. I noted his eyes narrowing in his annoyance before he continued. “This could be one of the biggest cases you've ever taken on, and perhaps the one with the most successful outcome.”

I sighed before I took another drag of my cigarette and put it out. “Look, Byakuya,” I replied, trying not to grin at his frown as I used his first name, “taking out a company associated with organized crime really isn't in my job description. The police, local and national, are usually pretty good at that, even though it can take them a long time to do it. What I do is different, and I do it because there's no one else who will. Currently, there's nothing in place to protect the average person from greedy corporations who take advantage of them and then throw them away like used tissues.”

I stopped for a moment then, staring at him so he knew who I was referring to and waiting for him to try to argue with what I'd said, or maybe get defensive, but instead he finished the bite he was eating and said nothing for a few seconds, just fixed me with now steely grey eyes before he spoke again.

“That's not what I'm here to talk about, Kurosaki. Regardless of how you feel about me or my company, I'm prepared to offer you four times your normal rate to work on this case due to the danger involved. For obvious reasons, I don't want to reveal that I've hired you, and I assume you wouldn't want to admit you're working for me, so part of that would be for your discretion, as well.”

“ _If_ I decide to work for you,” I corrected him, my eyes narrowing now. “I still haven't heard any real reason to take the job on.”

He raised an aristocratic-looking eyebrow. “So earning a decent rate doesn't tempt you? From the research I've seen, it seems your rates are considerably lower than some of the big investigation firms downtown.”

I shot him a look as I finished chewing; the sandwich had looked really good on the plate, but due to the company I was keeping, I couldn't really taste it properly. “Look, Byakuya, what are you trying to get at? Yeah, my office is on the bad side of town, and my overhead is a lot lower than the overpriced rent-a-cops I'm sure you've talked to, which is one of the reasons I can go cheaper, but now I'm starting to wonder why we're talking. Did you go to a few of them first and get turned down because no one wanted to take on this crazy job?”

Just the way his eyes slid away from mine almost confirmed my guess. I looked over at Kenpachi, who seemed to be trying very hard to keep his gaze neutral. “Whatever,” I finally continued, shaking my head. “That's not really important, I guess. The main thing I should be telling you here is that I didn't get into the work I do because I thought it was a get-rich-quick scheme. I got into it because there's a desperate need for it, and I keep in business because that need seems to grow daily. You can't buy me off, Byakuya. Believe me, it's been tried.”

I worked on my sandwich a little more as I watched his reaction to what I'd said. He was obviously trying to keep his expression in check, but I saw a look flicker across his face as if he'd bitten into something particularly distasteful. Finally, he looked back at me and sighed before saying, “All right then, if that's the way you feel about it, I'll stop wasting my time.”

As he made to get up, however, I felt as if something heavy had sunk into my gut as an awful thought came to mind. “Wait,” I said, a bit more loudly than I'd intended, and Byakuya turned in my direction, grey eyes flat but an eyebrow quirked as if to ask what I wanted. “When Kenpachi came to talk to me about your case the other day, he mentioned that you'd basically had your life threatened by your prospective buyer from Infinium, but there was one thing he didn't talk about. Did that threat include your new wife?”

I couldn't properly see the look that Byakuya shot at Kenpachi, but it apparently had enough force behind it that Kenpachi raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Hey, don't look at me,” he replied, raising a hand. “Like Kurosaki said, I didn't say anything about her.”

“I see no reason to talk with you about this,” Byakuya finally answered me, the expression he turned to me full of cold fury.

Shrugging, I continued. “That's your business, of course, but this is the first thing that’s actually given me any interest in the case. If you don't want to tell me, though, I guess you'd better go.”

He fixed me with a look that seemed a little too cultured to be a glare, but after a long moment he did sit back down. When he spoke, his only word was, “Yes.”

It took me a few seconds to realize that he was answering my earlier question, and when I did I couldn't stop myself from swearing under my breath. I pulled my notebook from the bag I'd slung on the back of my chair and asked Byakuya, “Could you tell me, as far as you remember it, exactly what he said?”

“He said that it was too bad that my wife and I had no heirs, because if anything were to happen to us, the only other Kuchikis are fairly elderly and would probably have a much different opinion about selling the company than I did.” His voice was even as he repeated the statement, but when I glanced at him as I jotted down what he'd said, I noticed his clenched fist on the table.

The tip of my pencil had almost poked through the paper by the time I belatedly realized that I’d been boring a hole in my notebook. I certainly hadn't come here with the intention of taking this job, but now I didn't see how I could refuse it. If anything happened to Rukia and Renji found out that I'd been in a position to take action to protect her, it was a sure bet he'd dump my ass and then probably try to beat me up on top of it, neither being things I’d want to have happen.

“All right,” I finally replied, meeting Byakuya's eye, “I'll take the job on under the terms you outlined earlier, along with the following additions. First, although I’ll never mention that I worked for you, I reserve the right to talk about the case itself. Also, I want to point out in particular that my rate is hourly plus expenses. Before I take the case on, I need your guarantee that you're good for the money.”

Byakuya raised both eyebrows and looked over at me with incredulity. I shook my head and continued. “It's like this, Byakuya. The information you need is out there, somewhere. If we had unlimited time, or at least more than we do currently, I could likely get it for you myself. But since this is a rush job, I'm going to have to deal with some people who can get the information you need quickly. As a result, it's going to cost money, maybe a lot of money.”

Byakuya's brows furrowed and he said, “Kurosaki, if you thought you could take this job to try to cheat me-”

“Don't be ridiculous,” I nearly barked, knowing I was scowling at the man again. “All right, since you obviously didn't get it the first time, let me spell out what’s going to happen more plainly. The people I'm going to need to deal with in order to get the information you need aren't the kind of folks who have offices downtown, and they're not the type of people you're used to dealing with. Their invoices, which I'll pass along to you, aren't likely to be detailed, but in order to actually get what you need I'm going to tell them that you'll pay what they ask. Do you understand what I'm getting at now?”

“I understand, and I agree. If anything looks out of line, however, you can be sure I'll question it,” Byakuya replied, but I thought I could still see some doubt in his eye.

I sighed before I spoke again. “Just to put your mind at ease as to why I decided to take this job, I have a request for the bonus that Kenpachi mentioned, if I'm able to get the recorded evidence you requested.”

“Of course,” Byakuya replied smoothly. “I'll pay-”

“That's not what I want,” I interrupted, waiting until he fell silent before I continued. “I want an hour's meeting with Rukia, just me and one other person of my choosing. Nothing bad will happen to her, and that maniac,” I said, nodding my head across the table at Kenpachi, “can come along to make sure of that. Not you, though.”

Now he really was glaring at me, but somehow he managed to do it in a way that still looked refined. I swear I'm going to have to get lessons from him one day. I just watched him, and I could see that he wanted to tell me to go to hell. He glanced at Kenpachi, who was no help and still grinning at having been called a maniac. Byakuya looked back in my direction reluctantly, and I almost found myself feeling sorry for the guy. It was clear from his expression that he desperately wanted to disdainfully reject me entirely and leave, but I knew what was stopping him, because I could see that too. It was a look I'd spotted in a number of my clients’ eyes as they came through my door because they knew no one else would help them. I didn't feel too sorry for Byakuya, though, because he was still annoyed, probably because he was used to being able to buy or otherwise use his influence to get out of problems he found himself involved in. In contrast, most of my clients were at the end of their ropes by the time they came to see me, since their more limited means gave them fewer options.

“All right,” Byakuya finally said, his mouth barely moving he was so tight-lipped. “But if anything at all happens to her, you are going to regret the day you ever met me.”

“I'm already regretting it,” I murmured, trying not to pitch my voice so that anyone else could hear it, because I couldn't stop the damned comment from coming out of my mouth. I noticed Byakuya cast me an incredulous glance, however, so I tried to cover my previous words with something new. “OK, agreed. I'll write up one of my standard contracts along with the changes we discussed and have it sent over to your office by tomorrow morning, and I'll make sure nothing on the outside of the package notes my identity, my work, or my work address. Do what you need to do to get it back to me by the following morning, along with a check for my retainer, so that I can get on this case for you.”

He nodded just barely to signify he'd heard, and I found myself letting out a small sigh along with tension draining out of my shoulders I hadn't realized was there. _It's done now, might as well go forward with the case_ , I found myself thinking. “All right, Byakuya,” I said, turning to the next page in my notebook, “start from the beginning and let's go through the story again. Kenpachi did give me a summary of what happened, but I want you to tell me all of the details you remember, no matter how insignificant you think they might be. Please don't hold anything back, and don't leave out things even if you feel like you don't want to talk about them.”

My look at him was a challenge, but he gazed right back at me. “How long should this take?”

“As long as it takes for you to go carefully through all the facts so that I know everything you know, and then give me a way to contact you, preferably at any time.” I paused as he slipped a card to me across the table. As I picked it up I noted that it was an old-fashioned heavy cream card stock with an embossed border that had simply a telephone number printed on it.

“That's my personal number,” Byakuya said. “You can reach me there at any time, but please don't call without good reason.”

I bit my cheek so that I didn't roll my eyes. _Believe me, I wouldn't be calling a dead fish like you without good reason_ was the first thought that came to mind, but I somehow reined my thoughts back to business.

“Thanks,” I replied as I scrawled on a corner of my notebook, then tore the piece off and handed it to Byakuya. “That's my cell phone number. I have it on me at all times, so please call if something relevant to the case comes up.” I let out a little laugh at his raised eyebrow and continued. “I'd give you my business card, but I imagine that would be harder to explain if someone found it than a mysterious phone number on a piece of paper.”

He took the slip of paper then and put it in the pocket he'd taken the card out of. “Now then,” I said, “could you start by letting me know who from Infinium came by to make you this offer?”

“He said his name was Sosuke Aizen,” Byakuya replied, his eyes narrowing.

I'm sure mine widened as I considered the fact that Aizen hadn't entrusted the job of approaching Kuchiki to any of his subordinates, opting to do it himself. “I take it you know that he's the President and CEO of the company,” I said, flipping my notes back a couple of pages to verify my memory.

Byakuya rolled his eyes. “Yes, he took care to mention that prominently.”

I was probably only half-listening to what he said in response, however, because just below Aizen's name I spotted the name of the CIO, and suddenly my previously absent memory kicked in just as I looked back up at Byakuya. The CIO had worked for his company before, I recalled, vaguely remembering a local business magazine's account of some spat he’d had with one of Byakuya's higher-ups before he left Kuchiki Industries.

“Have you looked into the rest of their upper management?” I asked quickly, and suddenly my heart was beating double-time, the way it always does when I know I've just caught hold of a thread that might help to unravel a difficult case.

“Yes,” he said, his voice tight, and he looked over at me quickly, as if trying to figure out how much I knew about what I was asking.

“So you know that their CIO, their head computer person, used to work for your company?” A look at his now impassive face confirmed that question. “If that's the case, are you going to be upgrading your computer network soon?”

He nodded in reply. “It's already in progress.”

“Good. Has your current phone ever been attached to your work network?” I asked, almost sure I knew what the answer was there. When he only grimaced in reply, I continued, “Well, there are lots of nice new models out there right now. I'd advise you not to call me until you get a new one.”

He nodded unwillingly and then started recounting the story Kenpachi had summarized for me, after asking the other man to call Rukia and notify her to cancel his after-lunch meetings. To Kenpachi's credit, I ended up with some more notes, but I didn't have anything new that I'd consider significant. After reminding Byakuya to call me should anything new and relevant to the case occur, we parted ways.

It was a bit after 2:30 by the time I got back to the office. The first thing I did once I got there was to take one of my standard contracts and add everything that Byakuya and I had discussed. It took about an hour before I got it into a shape I was happy with, but once I did, I went to the nearest place I could ship it by FedEx and sent it to arrive early the next morning. For my return address, I left no name and used a P.O. box number that I'd rented years ago when I was a poor student living in a group house where the mail was known for disappearing.

I realized the day was drawing to a close as I walked back to my office, but I knew there was at least one more thing I could try to get done. I held my cigarette tightly in my lips as a brisk breeze blew past, and as I fumbled in the pocket of my overcoat for my cell phone, I found myself thinking that it was too late in the autumn for me to be wearing a jacket this light. I put my other hand in my pocket for a moment as the phone rang and I listened hopefully for a response.

“Urahara Shop, how may I help you?” an oily voice finally said as the phone was answered.

“It's Ichigo Kurosaki,” I replied. “I have a rush job for Yoruichi and Ururu. There's some information a client needs as soon as possible, and they definitely have the means to pay.”

“Ah, Mr. Kurosaki,” he responded, and something in his tone made me feel like he'd been expecting my call. “I'll contact Yoruichi tonight and let her know about your request. I'm afraid I don't think I'll be getting back to you until tomorrow, but I'll be sure to call bright and early to let you know what she says.”

 _I should have known better than to think she might be available on short notice_ , I told my inner optimist. “All right. I'll be waiting for your call, Urahara.”

“Certainly. I'll talk to you tomorrow, Mr. Kurosaki.”

 _I'll be waiting for your call because this investigation is probably dead in the water without her_ , I found myself morosely considering. I mean, sure, I could poke around or I could go undercover, maybe do a combination of the two. Eventually I'd turn up some answers, but those methods took time, which was something that was in short supply in this case. Hell, for all I knew I was _already_ too late.

I flicked the burnt-down stub of my cigarette away and lit another one, telling myself that I shouldn't even worry about that at this point. Fortunately, my cell phone beeped in my pocket to distract me and I found a text message from Renji.

“Goin out w Shu after wk. Wont be by tonite.”

I wasn't much of a text sender usually, but I managed to return with, “Dont drink so much you cant ink tomorrow.”

“Fuck you,” he replied, which just made me laugh.

“That a promise?”

I swore I could see him smile when he got that one. “Yeah. See ya tomorrow.”

Fuck, I thought as I rounded the corner to my office. I realized now that the whole evening stretched out before me, but I couldn’t think of much worthwhile to do to fill it. Now that it was official, I found myself burning to get going on the case, but it was pretty much the end of the business day and I had no real leads that I could follow up on. If Renji’d been coming by I could have distracted myself easily until Urahara’s call tomorrow morning, but now…

I headed the rest of the way back home and grabbed my laptop and brought it upstairs so that I could type up my notes while I made dinner and ate. People always ask why I do that, when I’m rarely without my notebook, but this way I have a backup in case anything happens to my notebook, or to me. Unfortunately, neither typing nor dinner took very long, so I was back to staring at the walls.

Shaking my head at my restlessness, I threw myself into cleaning up the apartment (something I usually put off until even I can no longer deny it needs to be done), even going so far as to start some laundry, but the place was too small to occupy me for long. Finally, I changed into something more appropriate for a workout and headed out to where I thought Tatsuki would be teaching that day. As it turned out, I had guessed wrong, but her father, who was teaching that particular class, insisted that I stay as he called her.

“It's her day off,” he explained, “but she'd never forgive me if she heard that I turned you away. You are her favorite sparring partner, Ichigo.”

For some reason, I felt inordinately pleased at that. “Thank you, sir.”

He just smiled and made some tea which I drank as I waited. Tatsuki arrived not long after, and the smirk on her face when I saw her made me squirm a little. “You're in over your head, aren't you?” she asked, once we were alone and facing off in the middle of the empty martial arts studio, her words echoing slightly off the mirrors and bare wood floor. “That's the only reason you ever show up here more than once a week.”

My heart jumped once, as if guilty. “Yeah, I guess maybe I am,” I replied, thinking about all of the events of the past few days.

“Well, don't fuck it up and push him away this time,” she replied, and I could see her squaring her posture, getting ready to fight. “You have a habit of doing that, you know.”

To my mortification, I could feel my face heat up. “That's not what I meant!” I replied hotly, belatedly remembering that she'd met Renji a couple of months ago, at a party Chad's band had thrown when they'd recorded a new album.

“ _Sure_ , Ichigo,” she said, her smile positively wicked now as she closed in for her attack.

The whole thing had thrown me off enough that she pretty easily defeated me a number of times that evening. My whole body ached as I reached for my cell phone that morning, squinting against the early morning light as I did. “Kurosaki here,” I replied, having trained myself to answer coherently night or day since this was my main business number.

“Ah, Mr. Kurosaki,” Urahara's familiar smooth voice replied, and I blinked quickly as I looked at the alarm clock not far away. Trying not to curse under my breath, I got up out of bed with as much haste as I could manage, realizing that I must have forgotten to set the alarm the previous night, since it was already 9AM. “I spoke to Ms. Yoruichi yesterday evening, and she's agreed to see you today. Can you be here by 10 this morning?” he asked.

I looked at myself in the mirror a little angrily as I replied. “Yes, I'll be there. Thanks, Urahara.”

“It's my pleasure, Mr. Kurosaki.”

As I stripped and headed for a quick shower, I began recalling why my head was so heavy and my eyes felt as if they had sand in them. When I'd gotten back home after having the crap beaten out of me by Tatsuki, I’d felt filled with a new resolve. _Maybe I can't get all the answers I need tonight_ , I remembered thinking, _but I can still get information that'll make it easier to move against them_. I spent long hours going through all the places I could think of online to get public information about Infinium Logistics and the three principals running it, and as a result I had a list of locations all around town of buildings owned or leased by the company and a number of information odds and ends that might come in handy, depending on what I found out over the next couple of days.

The really interesting bit was what I'd discovered about Aizen, however. I'd found articles detailing his arrest and subsequent indictment for embezzlement of an unknown number of millions of dollars about seven years ago, during the time he was Chief Financial Officer of one of the larger corporations headquartered in downtown Karakura. When the case went to trial, however, it turned out that his choice of criminal lawyer was fortunate, and he was acquitted. He'd dropped out of sight for a couple of years after that and then had come back into the limelight when he'd founded Infinium Logistics about five years ago now.

I was still thinking all of that over by the time I'd arrived at the Urahara shop. I'd managed to successfully hurry through my morning routine and I was even sipping coffee out of the biggest travel mug I owned as I walked into the shop, right on time.

“Ah, Mr. Kurosaki,” I heard from the direction of one of the merchandise shelves in the back of the shop, and waited until Urahara appeared. “Ms. Yoruichi is waiting for you.”

I nodded as he ushered me into one of the back rooms and I found Yoruichi sitting at a table, her feet curled up under her in her chair. She had a huge mug of tea between both hands and had just finished a sip. She grinned at me as I came into the room, I couldn't help but notice that the black silk robe she was wearing was tied loosely enough to show a generous amount of cleavage. “Well, if it isn't little Ichigo.”

“Yoruichi,” I replied with a nod, averting my eyes and trying not to think too much about it so that I didn't start blushing like I used to whenever I saw her as a kid.

“Oh, Ichigo,” she laughed, “you're always so serious! Sit down; have you had anything to eat?”

When I shook my head in the negative, she called out loudly, “Tessai!”

The large man poked his head into the room and looked at Yoruichi. “Tessai, could you get us something to eat? I'm starving!”

He nodded and murmured, “Of course, Ms. Yoruichi.”

“All right,” she said, setting her mug down on the table, “what was the job you wanted to ask me about?”

I finished the sip of coffee I was taking. “Actually, I'm going to need Ururu's help with this, too.”

“Really?” Yoruichi's gave an interested grin as she leaped to her feet. The first thing I noticed as she crossed the room to the connecting door to the next room was the multicolored flight of birds embroidered on the back of her very short robe. Of course, I couldn't help but notice her long legs next, just as beautiful and muscular as I remembered them from when I was a kid and she'd come out to the hot tub in back of the shop wearing just a string bikini. What? You think just because I'm gay that I can't recognize a nice pair of legs if they're on a woman? Anyway, I was congratulating myself as I stared at the wall, because at least I wasn't blushing.

I glanced back over as she pulled her head back in through the door and quickly came back to the table, still grinning. “She's coming,” Yoruichi said, and seemed about to add something but Tessai had returned, so whatever it was got replaced with a delighted sound instead.

The man had brought a huge tray full of food, and Yoruichi thanked him as he put a large plate of pancakes on the table, along with butter, syrup, coffee, hash browns, a large bowl of fruit, juice – a seemingly endless parade of edible items. “Help yourself, Ichigo,” she told me, but I knew that with her appetite she'd be eating a lot of it, so I managed to grab a few pieces of toast before she got to them. I was putting blueberry preserves on them when the door to the side opened again and Ururu walked through the door.

I smiled when I saw her, and she paused to look at me for a moment before she crossed to the table, laptop in hand. It had been several months since I'd seen her last but it seemed she'd gotten tired with her hairstyle in the meantime, something that seemed to happen regularly with her. Her current one was cropped short in the back but got longer as it came around her head, following the line of her jaw. Her bangs were asymmetrical, so when she looked at me with curiously as she sat and poured herself a cup of coffee, I could only see the expression in one dark eye. The black jumpsuit she was wearing was familiar, however. I didn't know how many of them she had, but every time I'd seen her in the last few years, she seemed to be wearing one.

“All right, Ichigo,” Yoruichi said after she swallowed a bite of apple, “now that we're both here, what's the job you want to talk to us about?”

Finishing my bite of toast, I reviewed in my mind what I'd decided to say to them. I'd thought about it a bit in the car on the way over, the best way to convey what needed to be done without revealing my client. Taking a deep breath, I said, “I have a client whose company is currently the focus of a hostile takeover bid by Infinium Logistics.”

Yoriuchi's eyebrow had shot up at the mention of the company's name, but she didn't slow down eating her pancakes, so I figured I still had the floor. “The person who hired me found out that the company has ties to organized crime, and that they're planning a meeting shortly where they'll be discussing some of their dirty business. As a result, I've been asked to go to that meeting and record it so that they'll have something to give to the police to bring Infinium down.”

Ururu was splitting her attention between listening to me and typing something into her laptop, and Yoruichi was looking slightly skeptical now, but nodded as if to encourage me to continue talking. “The only problem is that the intelligence about the meeting is now several days old, so I can't really spend the time needed to go undercover or poke around to try to collect it. So, I came here to ask that Yoruichi share any information about the company she has, since my research hasn't turned up all that much yet, and to ask Ururu to find out when and where that meeting is supposed to be. Of course, since this is all needed as soon as possible, you'd get your rush rates. I already talked with the client about it, and he said he'd be good for the money. And don't worry, his company does have deep pockets.”

I watched them both closely, and I’d known Yoruichi long enough to see just by the way she was chewing that she was interested. She turned towards Ururu and said, “Could you bring up…” trailing off as the younger woman turned the laptop so that they both could see it. Yoruichi smiled sharply at Ururu then. “Thanks.”

The two of them spent a few moments staring at the screen then, obviously both reading through something, while I took advantage of the moment to drink a little more coffee, my fingers itching as I wished for the millionth time that I could smoke in the shop. Finally, Yoruichi turned to her companion. “So, what do you think? Do you want to take the job?”

To my surprise, Ururu smiled slyly. “Yes,” she said, simply, returning Yoruichi’s look.

“Good. Why don’t you get to it while I settle the rest of the details with Ichigo?” Yoruichi replied, smiling again, her look saying that she knew that Ururu was more interested in getting back to her computers than sitting at the breakfast table.

The younger woman’s grin turned up a notch as she shut her laptop with a click, then grabbed a muffin along with her cup of coffee and disappeared back behind the door she’d come out of. I stared after her for a moment, remembering when Yoruichi had taken Ururu under her wing. The young woman had been in her mid-teens when her amazing talent with computers had become apparent to everyone, and it hadn’t been long after that when Yoruichi had begun taking a special interest in her. Now, they seemed to work almost as partners. I was harshly pulled out of my musing by Yoruichi’s next comment, however. “So, it seems little Byakuya managed to get himself into trouble, eh?”

It's times like these that I really wish I could smoke everywhere I go, because I'd at least have the smoke in front of my face to obscure my expression a little. As it was, I did manage not to gape, but I'm sure my eyes were the size of dinner plates when I blurted out, “I didn't say anything about that!”

She laughed then, letting her head fall back, and then looked at me again, still grinning. “Oh, Ichigo, you can't have thought I wouldn't know! Of course you didn't say anything, but you didn't have to. That is why you came to see me, isn't it?”

Her eyes had changed now, looking hard and piercing, and I had to nod in response. That is exactly why I came to see her, and it's probably only that I was lucky enough to know her as long as I had that she had even bothered to see me, because I wasn't the only one. Anyone in town who wanted the best competitive intelligence - or, as some would have it, the best corporate spy - came here seeking out Yoruichi. If there was anything worth knowing in the business world of this town, she knew it. I'd even heard some claim that she must be some kind of shapeshifter so that she could be a fly on the wall at important meetings or backroom business dealings. I think they were just mad that she was able to figure out their secrets, though.

“Don't worry,” she continued, grinning again. “I won't tell anyone, but I figure it might be useful if he tries to give you any trouble about our bill. Little Byakuya can be so stubborn sometimes.”

I raised an eyebrow. “I guess you know the guy, then?”

“I've known him since he was around the age I first met you,” she said, her smile widening and suddenly looking sly.

I found that hard to believe, considering that she didn't look any older than me, but I also found it hard to believe that she looked about the same as she had since the day I'd met her. I'd been about ten years old then, slouching around the back garden of the store, waiting for my father and Urahara to finish catching up when she came outside, stretched, threw off her bikini and jumped into the hot tub. I nearly swallowed my tongue, especially when she looked over in my direction, grinned, and winked.

“You know, Ichigo, since I can tell you’re desperate for the help, there’s something other than our rush rates that I want to ask for this job, but it’s more along the lines of a personal favor,” Yoruichi said, shooting a dark smirk at me. The look alone let me know something nefarious was going through her mind.

“What is it?” I asked cautiously.

“So suspicious,” she said, grinning widely now. “I’ve heard through the grapevine that you’re dating a hot redhead, so I want you to let me watch the two of you together.”

It took a moment for that to sink in, and when it did, I could feel my face hit what seemed like a thousand degrees. “What?!”

“Come on, Ichigo, you know what I mean. I want to watch the two of you in bed,” she said, her gaze looking positively devilish now.

It took me a minute to get my thoughts together enough to speak. “I can’t promise you anything like that!”

“But you need our help, don’t you?” she asked, and I knew she knew how badly I did and that she really had me at a disadvantage. “OK, so don’t commit now, but you have to promise me you’ll ask your guy, and that if he says yes that you’ll agree, too. Whatever he says, though, you have to tell me.”

I took another sip of coffee, mind working furiously. The longer I thought about it, the more I figured that Renji would probably never go for something like that, so I should be safe regardless. “All right, Yoruichi, but I don’t think he’s going to agree.”

She clapped her hands and looked excited. “That’s all right; if he says no, he says no, but don’t forget, you’ve got to tell me regardless.”

I nodded and then shook my head quickly to refocus. “All right, enough about that. So what can you tell me that might help me out when I go after this company?”

She laughed in reply. “Oh, Ichi, you sound so grown up when you get all businesslike!” Laughing again at my scowl, Yoruichi's smile dimmed as she continued to look at me. “All right, then. What I know about this business goes back a ways. Do you want the full story or just the details about Infinium itself?”

I'd rarely seen her so serious, and it made me go straight for my notebook. “I'd love to hear the full story,” I said, pulling my pencil out of the notebook binding and quickly turning for the next blank page.

“All right then,” she said, pouring herself some more tea and settling back in her chair, pulling her feet up under her again. “I'll tell you what I know, then, as well as what I suspect.” After fixing me for a moment with a considering eye, Yoruichi continued. “Like I said, this story goes back aways, almost two decades.”

I glanced back up at her in surprise, but she didn't smile this time. Looking deadly serious, she said, “It starts with the story of a man called Sosuke Aizen, who I'm sure you're familiar with if you've been researching Infinium.” I nodded, feeling the electric charge on my skin telling me that this story was going to be good, and waited for her to keep going. “Anyway, almost two decades ago he was a young man that got hired by the number-one accounting firm in town. He worked hard from an entry position to climb the ranks until about a decade ago he'd become the CFO of the firm.”

Yoruichi paused then, and something made me glance up at her from where I'd been scribbling notes. She looked focused, as if she was trying to bore a hole through the tablecloth with her eyes, and she was holding a butter knife in her hand. I got the impression she'd forgotten it was there, however, as she tightened her fist around it, so hard her knuckles went white. I moved then, and the noise caused her to redirect her glare from the table top, but after she realized, she looked away.

“He used that position of trust to embezzle millions of dollars from the firm,” she finally said, then raised her eyebrows as I nodded in return. “Oh, so you turned that fact up? You are a pretty good researcher, Ichi,” she said, one of her saucy smiles returning to her face, and I couldn't help but return it since I was happy to see it.

“As you probably know, then, he managed to buy a good lawyer and get acquitted. He vanished for a few years after that, and my guess as to why is that he wanted to extend his network of contacts, like any good businessman. In his case, though, like a _bad_ businessman, he was trying to hook up with other criminals like himself.”

“Why do you say that?” I asked out of curiosity, but also maybe to give me some time to catch up on my notes. My pencil was flying across the page, but I was still behind.

She gave me an assessing look. “Because of the fact that when he founded Infinium, the sheer size of what he started with would have been impossible to finance just with the tens of millions he got away with. I think he found someone to go in with him on the business, probably one of the other two guys he runs it with.”

I nodded then and noted that down quickly, sensing even more interesting things were about to be revealed. “At any rate, from what I've been able to find out, Aizen and his company aren't actually part of any of the organized crime groups in town. They seem to act sort of like freelancers, really, serving any of the groups that come to them. You probably know about the transportation services they provide, but that's really only a small chunk of their business. The majority of it is Aizen's speciality: making bad money look good. The money laundering seems to account for the bulk of the business they do, actually.”

I looked up at her with interest, since this was the first I'd heard of it. “Really? How does he do it?”

Yoruichi grinned broadly. “I'm glad you asked. When he first started, he was sort of lazy about it. Since he'd established a shipping company, he just created extravagant bills for shipping things that didn't exist, but I guess he figured that you could only keep the auditors at bay for so long with stories like that, so he came up with another game. I have to hand it to him, it's pretty ingenious.”

I paused, my pencil hovering over the page, to throw her a look that urged her to continue, which seemed to be all she needed. “I'm guessing you noticed that he bought up several smaller businesses over the past few years?” When I nodded, she added, “I figured you were doing your homework. Anyway, what he does is this. He picks up these companies, and on paper he throws tons of money at them – buying new signs, new equipment, training for the employees, new uniforms and anything else he can think of. In reality, those invoices are being paid to mob front companies, or P. O. box shell companies they've set up, and of course no goods or services change hands. Aizen takes his cut of the money that's laundered this way, of course. In reality, he strips all of the money these companies make from them. He barely gives them enough capital for day-to-day expenses and if anything breaks, it's not fixed or replaced. As you can guess, after a while most of the employees quit in disgust. Once Aizen thinks he's sucked as much value as he can from these companies, usually by the time he's collected what he paid for them at least three times over in fees from laundered cash, he lays off the rest of the employees and sells the fixtures to pay off any creditors. Then he claims a big tax write off for his business loss.”

After I finished writing, I just paused for a few seconds to take it all in and realized I was beginning to get angry now. Having worked with a number of small business owners, I've learned that every small business out there was only created by someone's hard work and dedication over many long days and nights. The idea that Aizen bought them up only to suck the life out of them and leave their empty shells in the garbage pissed me off. I reflected that Byakuya might actually have been able to interest me in the case itself had he known this, but upon further thought, I doubted he probably would have figured it would make any difference to me. Suddenly, something occurred to me and I asked, “So, if you have all of this dirt on Aizen's company, why haven't you shared it with the police?”

Yoruichi laughed then, grabbing a bunch of grapes from the fruit basket. “Oh, Ichigo, you're still as funny as you were when you were little. I'm not really the kind to go running to the police, though,” she said, still grinning as she popped a grape into her mouth. “You're welcome to share the information with them, though. You can even take credit for it, if you like.”

I laughed in return. “I'll take it under consideration,” I replied.

“Anyway, that's pretty much the story, as far as I know it,” Yoruichi continued. “Was there anything else you needed information on? His henchmen? His hangouts?”

That sparked an idea. “Actually, do you have a list of all of the places in town where Infinium does business from? I was able to get a few addresses last night,” I said, flipping to the right page in my notebook to show her the five I'd gotten so far. “Do you have a full list, however?”

She leaned over the table to peer at my notebook, and I turned away as her robe slipped lower with her movement.. “Not bad, Ichi,” Yoruichi replied as she sat back in her chair. “You got a little less than half, though. Let me talk to Ururu and I'll get you the full list.”

As she disappeared through the door, the full weight of the situation began to settle on me. I tried to take another sip of coffee to distract myself, but found it was gone. While I poured some more from the carafe on the table, I considered that Sosuke Aizen seemed to be a completely ruthless individual: screwing over and stealing from people he'd worked with and gotten to trust him, buying up people's businesses just to turn them into spectacular wrecks, and somehow managing to make anyone who complained about him and his business disappear. I sighed as I stirred a bunch of sugar into my coffee, but brightened up as I considered that since I'd been able to hire Yoruichi and Ururu to do a lot of the legwork that would usually get my face and name known in an organization, with any luck I might be able to wrap this job up without them knowing who I was at all.

I was taking a sip of my newly refreshed coffee when Yoruichi returned, handing me a couple sheets of paper. “You'll probably notice that along with their headquarters, there are ten auxiliary business addresses. They each seem to have one of Aizen's lieutenants running them, and each of them seems to specialize in one area of the business. We've added their names above the address they work out of, and have added a note about what each one of them seems to have responsibility for.”

I glanced through the addresses and saw a bunch of unfamiliar names with notations like “drug transport” or “creative accounting,” until I got to the sixth address, which read, “#6 – Grimmjow Jeagerjaques, weapons transport.” _Gun runner, I should have known. No wonder he never wanted to discuss what he did for a living..._

“Is something wrong, Ichigo? You look like someone walked over your grave,” Yoruichi said, looking over her teacup in amusement at me.

I just shook my head. “So, I guess you'll call as soon as Ururu turns up anything?”

She nodded. “You can call, too, if you think of anything you forgot.”

“Thanks. I should probably go now, though, to see how many of these places I can get a look at today.”

Yoruichi just smiled in reply and waved at me as I left. I swung back by the office to get my binoculars and a heavier coat and spent the rest of the day scoping out a number of Infinium Logistics locations around town. I figured since I wasn't sure where the meeting would be held, it made sense to try to get at least basic information and layouts for all of the locations. The headquarters building was easy to spot but hard to study too much; it was one of the taller buildings in downtown Karakura, but I was able to find a place to observe it for half an hour or so to find at least the most obvious entrances, exits, and security checkpoints and cameras.

Many of the other locations were a lot easier to find out more about. There were a couple in more run-down sections of Karakura, but the majority of them were in Rukongai in various bad neighborhoods. Due to the high instances of abandoned buildings and garbage, it made the job of observing the buildings much easier. By the time dusk had started to roll around, however, I was only on the sixth auxiliary building. I watched it for about an hour before the darkness closed in enough to make me pack it in for the day, but I'd sketched the general outlines of the building, made note of entrances and exits (including emergency ones), security cameras, and a number of other features of interest. Even though my stomach had clenched nervously when I'd arrived, I was perfectly calm now. Reminding myself that I’d heard Grimmjow was in jail helped a lot.

By the time I got back home, I was still restless with the energy I always get from being on the case. I went into the office first and was surprised at the package I found along with some envelopes underneath my mail slot. When I opened it, I found the signed contract from Kuchiki and a check for a little more than three weeks’ worth of what I normally get paid. Eyebrows raised, I filed the contract immediately and made my way quickly to the bank to cash the check before Byakuya changed his mind.

When I arrived back at my apartment, I paced at first, trying to assimilate all of the information I'd gotten today and figure out what to do next. Finally I realized that my adrenaline was causing my thoughts to go around in circles and pulled out my laptop to transcribe my notes and add some new ones summarizing my thoughts and questions so far. By the time I heard the door open it was a little after midnight and I'd taken to looking at Google Street View to get an early start on scoping out the rest of the addresses I'd be going to the next morning.

I stretched on the couch and put my laptop on the coffee table, suddenly realizing I must have gotten hot with all of the pacing I'd been doing, since I'd changed into a t-shirt and now had just my boxers on. Getting up off the couch, I walked to the kitchen to see the refrigerator door open and someone with a bright red shock of hair behind the open door.

“So, how are you feeling?” I asked, knowing I was smirking.

“Well, the hangover finally went away a few hours ago,” Renji responded from behind the refrigerator door, then poked his head over it to look at me. “I'm surprised you're actually up. I figured you'd probably be in bed by now.”

Shrugging, I replied, “Well, usually, but I'm still in the middle of some research for the new case.”

He smiled then and I tried to ignore the spike in my heart rate as I just stared at him for a moment, realizing how fucking gorgeous he looked when he smiled. “Just don't stay up as late as you did when you were working on mine.”

I grinned in return, my heart hammering in my chest. “Yeah, I'll try not to. So, are you hungry?”

Renji's smile changed character as he straightened up and shut the refrigerator door. “Yeah, I'm starved,” he replied, heading in my direction.

Puzzled, I was about to ask him what the hell he was talking about when he pinned me against the kitchen table and bent to kiss me. Hell, I didn't care once that started and I surged forward, opening my mouth with a groan as his tongue teased along my bottom lip, lightning quick and sending an electric jolt through me. I was shivering by the time he drew back.

“Every time I see that hot body of yours, I get so hungry I just want to eat you up,” he growled, and just the sound of him made my cock twitch. Of course, it didn't hurt that he was pressing his thigh up in between mine to the point where I couldn't help pushing forward, which seemed to cause him to pull me tighter to him.

He'd started on my neck and I was grinding against him in earnest, trying to unbutton his jeans with the hand that wasn't clutching his back, when he said, “Ichigo, I want to see your sexy body leaned over the table. Will you do it for me?”

Fuck, I'd probably have run a marathon naked if he'd asked me like that, but all I did was turn around. I looked at him over my shoulder as I bent over the table, being sure to spread my legs and tilt my ass up in the air. The hungry look he gave me went straight to my cock, and I was suddenly sorry not to have that hard thigh in between my legs anymore.

“Mmmmm,” he rumbled, the sound almost a growl. I gave a little gasp as a shiver ran down me when his lips met the base of my spine. He began licking and nipping his way up my back, pushing the t-shirt up in front of him and leaving it to me to take off a few moments later. “I can't believe you've laid out something this delicious just for me,” he told my skin, his voice so low it seemed to send tremors through me. “I hope you don't mind me being greedy, but I'm going to have to taste a little bit of everything.”

The anticipation sent a shudder ripping through me, and I cried out as he sank his teeth into my shoulder, my back arching as his tongue teased the skin there until he pulled back. “Fuck, you sound just as good as you taste,” he said, his voice seeming to vibrate against the base of my neck and he nipped me there before moving lower, his hips thrusting against me once before moving away, giving me a fleeting sensation of just how hard he was even through the fabric of his jeans.

My attention was ripped away from that, however, when I felt his fingers under the waistband of my boxers, tugging them down my body, and I shifted so that he could slide them down until I could just step out of them. I was suddenly intensely aware of being naked and bent over my kitchen table, but all that faded as I felt the first gentle bite on the inside of my thigh, pushing my legs open again. His hair tickled me, and I moved to stand up to see what he was up to, but he growled and gripped one of my legs, his thumb teasing right along the seam where my thigh met the rest of me, until my head dropped, one side of my face pressed to the cool wood in a vague attempt to stay grounded. “No. Stay just like that,” he said, his voice still low and affected. “Don't clear the table until I'm done eating.”

I cursed under my breath as my cock twitched at that, which made Renji chuckle, being at the right level to see it. His hands left me for a moment, as did his talented mouth, but I didn't have much time to be upset about it before I could feel him on my skin again, and this time he was under the table. “One of my favorites,” he said, the sound slightly muffled, and the feeling of just his breath against my cock was such a welcome sensation that I would probably have crumpled in on myself if I wasn't stretched out over something solid. He grabbed me as I sucked in my breath, and I could feel his big thumb and forefinger around my dick, pulling it closer to him. The first touch of his tongue on the head of my cock set my knees shaking and I struggled to remain still. “Tastes good,” he murmured between long licks where it felt like he was nearly wrapping his tongue around me. “Tastes like sex, and like you...two of the best flavors in the world.”

He was turning me into a wreck, my legs barely holding out as he teased me, licking me long and slow like a lollipop he was relishing, giving me enough sensation to keep me so hard I could barely stand it but not enough to come. “Fuck, Renji,” I finally gasped out, “give me more.”

I could feel his chuckle against my skin as he leaned in for another lick, and I could feel my dick jump at his touch. “What, Ichigo? What do you want?” he asked, and something in that dark tone told me what he wanted.

“Suck it,” I ground out. “Suck my cock.”

It didn't seem to matter to Renji whether I begged or I ordered him, as long as I was talking dirty. And then I couldn't hold back my loud moan as he took me in fast, the head of my cock bumping against the back of his throat. I think I was cursing again as he pulled back, saying, “Yeah, that's it. Tell me how you want it. Tell me how good it feels.”

I couldn't think enough to do more than grunt as he sucked me back in, his tongue wrapping around my cock as he sucked me. “ _Fuck_ , just like that,” I muttered, grunting again as he swallowed around the head of my dick. “You know, you're really good at this for someone who's dated girls before.”

He somehow managed to chuckle with my cock in his mouth, making a shudder run through my body. “Feels so fucking good when you suck me off,” I continued, trying to stay audible even though I was so out of it I could barely speak. “Just makes me want my cock inside that gorgeous mouth all the time, coming as deep in you as I can get.”

And then I was nearly sliding off the table, my legs almost giving out as he grabbed my ass with both hands, using his grip to move my hips, sliding my cock in and out of his mouth. Somehow, not being able to see what he was doing made the whole thing that much more intense and sent my mind reeling into fantasies of him. My fingers tried to dig into the smooth surface of the table as I imagined him under me, his legs around my waist. Just the deep groan he would make was threatening to send me over the edge, and when in my mind he started telling me in that deep tone he gets when he's turned on, “That's it, come on, Ichigo, fuck me just like that,” my eyes flew open to reality as I felt that familiar feeling start to rise up.

I tried to warn him. “Renji, I'm going to-”I stopped speaking then, letting out a little groan as his mouth left me. “Not yet,” he replied, and I could hear the smirk in his voice. I was too turned on to care much, though, fluttering on the edge and trying to push the sensation back down, telling myself it wasn't just because of Renji's command. I could feel him behind me again, and it felt like he'd lost the rest of his clothes, because one of the first things pressed against me was something long, hard, hot, and familiar. I pushed the undignified whimper of desire back in my throat and closed my eyes as I felt his hand moving gently across my back. “Just relax, Ichigo. We're not ready for dessert because I'm not done eating yet.”

I'd lowered my forehead to the cool wood, hoping it would calm me down a bit. I groaned as I felt a nip on my ass, and then my whole body shook as I felt Renji's wonderfully talented tongue moving ever closer to the base of my spine. He followed that line further down until every muscle in my body felt taut with anticipation. The first sweep of his tongue across my entrance sent a shudder through me that nearly caused my knees to buckle, and the noise I made didn't even seem human anymore. Renji just chuckled, however, sending waves of shivers through me, and spread my ass cheeks a little wider to give himself more room.

By the time his long, slick tongue had begun to push into me, my whole body was bucking and shaking, only held in place by one big hand on my hip and one pulling me open wide enough for Renji to continue what he'd started. I'd never before been rimmed with the sort of intense focus Renji was giving me, and although it was keeping me so hard I could barely think, it wasn't enough to make me come. I was beginning to think he wanted me to beg this time, and I was considering doing it when his tongue left me for a few seconds. I collapsed to the table only to push myself up a minute later as two slick fingers slid into me. I couldn't help the groan I made, because I could tell Renji had lost his patience, which made a fierce pleasure spring up in my gut. He was thrusting into me hard and fast and so good. I groaned again a moment later as he slid a third finger into me.

“You feel so fucking good inside,” he murmured, leaning over me, and I shivered again as I felt his hair tickle my neck. “What do you want? Tell me.”

Hell, I was getting to the point where I _wanted_ to beg, but something about the low, strained sound of his voice made me start desiring something else. I wanted to make him feel as desperate as I felt now, and I turned my head around to look him in the eye. “You,” I replied, and the gaze he met mine with was dark and hot. “Sit down.”

I closed my eyes as he moved, missing his fingers in me, but turned to see him obediently sitting in the kitchen chair behind me. I'm sure my grin was scary as I took the lube and condom out of his hands and moved forwards, between his legs. I had his face in my hands as I kissed him, and I didn't know how it was possible that he could taste so damned good every time. Realizing I had to move away from his mouth before I lost it entirely, I sucked on his bottom lip before I slid down to work on the tattoos on his neck. The mumbled curses and groans he gave as I licked and sucked my way along his ink kept the heat in me working its way up to a fever pitch. Because of that, I couldn't spend as much time as I wanted to, since what Renji had done earlier had already left me so hungry for him I was still shaking..

Before I knew it, I was licking my way down one of the fangs on Renji's abdomen to the sounds of his moans, and then I was kneeling between his spread legs, licking my lips. “Fuck, Ichigo, you sexy...fuck!” Renji exclaimed, cutting off what he'd been saying as I licked the head of his cock slowly, my tongue circling around, tasting how turned on he was and playing with the end of his piercing. I took more of him in and he groaned, leaning his head back. Finally, as I worked up a rhythm, pushing the head of his cock to the back of my throat, he spoke again, low and urgently. “Ichigo, you've got to stop teasing me like this or I'm going to come.”

He just watched me as I pulled back, eyes wide and attentive. “Sorry, but you're going to have to wait a little longer,” I said, unable to yank my eyes away from the sight of Renji, naked and sitting in front of me, hair down and eyes dark and lustful. I fumbled for the condom on the table behind me and watched him close his eyes and drag in a breath as I rolled it on him. I reached for his cock to slather lube on it and leaned forward. When my mouth was close to his ear I whispered, “I want to fuck you just like this, spread out for me and looking hotter than hell. I want to watch your face when you come.”

I was grinning as I leaned back, and then I was straddling him. His pupils were so big his eyes looked nearly black, and he seemed so serious as I felt him bring his big cock into position under me just when I began to lower myself into his lap. As always, just the act of taking him in seemed to set every nerve in my body off, and I was grateful for his hands on my hips to guide me down. I was still shivering when I opened my eyes again to see him watching me. I couldn't help but smile as I moved my feet off the floor to rest on the rungs that braced the legs of the chair, and leaned back to rest my hands on Renji's thighs. Smiling wider at the look of confusion he gave me, I watched it turn to heat as I used my legs to pull backwards and then slide forwards, using my arms to stabilize me and giving Renji a perfect view of his cock moving in and out of me.

“Oh, fuck,” he said in a low voice, his head bowed to look, and suddenly his big hands were on my waist, helping me push that big dick even deeper.

I gasped and shuddered as that harder thrust reminded me that something about this angle was really fucking perfect, and I struggled to open my eyes, since they'd flown shut. Renji was looking me in the eye then, and the heat in his gaze nearly scorched me. “Like that?”

I managed a grin that was probably more like a snarl as he planted his feet and tilted his hips up to meet me. “Probably not as much as you. I thought you'd like the view.”

His eyes had wandered down again to watch me take him in. “Fuck yes I like it,” he nearly growled. “You look so fucking hot like this.” He snapped his hips up that time, and it felt so good that the cry was out of my mouth before I was aware of it. “Yeah, fuck me just like that, Ichigo.”

I'd somehow been keeping a hold of myself, watching all of the intense and sexy expressions on Renji's face, but when he said that, my control began to slip. On the next stroke, I stopped with his cock as deep as I could get it and moved my feet to stand on the floor again while wrapping my arms around his neck and pulling him as close as I could manage. A moment later and I was fucking him as hard as I could from that position, lifting and dropping myself on Renji's dick, his hands on my hips pulling me in and his hips bucking up to meet mine.

“That's it, Ichigo, fuck me. Use my cock to make you come so hard you'll never forget it,” he was growling in my ear, and suddenly I clutched him even more tightly as I was overwhelmed by a rush of pleasure so strong I lost touch with anything else. I was still panting and my throat was raw when I could take in the outside world again, and I started moving once more since I realized Renji still was. He was moaning in my ear, mumbling broken curses before his head shot back and he thrust into me erratically. Renji moaned my name as I buried my face in his shoulder and bit down, and after a while we both were still.

Although I find it hard to believe I could have drifted off in that situation, the next thing I remember was Renji gently shaking me. “Are you OK?” he asked as I stumbled while climbing out of his lap. “I think you were sleeping.”

“Fuck you,” I replied, although I couldn't seem to actually get annoyed with him as I leaned against the table, smiling goofily, I'm sure.

“Oh, but you just did,” he said, leaning his face in towards mine, and in the next moment, the world around me seemed to move.

“Hey!” I almost yelled and squirmed, realizing that Renji was carrying me out of the kitchen.

The look he gave me a moment later was so warm and kind and...something else I wasn't sure of, that I had to bury my face in his neck and hang on to him. “Relax, Ichigo,” Renji replied. “You look too tired, so I'm taking you to bed.”

I knew my cheeks were burning from the way the tone in his low voice had made his last sentence seem anything other than innocent, but I watched him anyway as he put me on the bed and cleaned the two of us up. “All right,” he said once he'd tucked me into the covers, “get some sleep. I'll be in here later.”

It was dark in the room when I woke up sometime later, and I could feel Renji nearby. I opened my eyes and saw him in the dim light coming in from under the blinds and smiled. “Finally getting some sleep, huh?” he asked. “So who is it that has you working day and night, anyhow?”

I bit my lip, replying, “Uh, I can't actually tell you, unfortunately.”

He paused a moment and looked away. “Oh,” he replied. Renji had been lying on his side, turned towards me, but he moved to lay on his back now, staring at the ceiling.

Fuck! Tatsuki's earlier advice chose that moment to run through my mind, and I found myself mentally scrambling to come up with an explanation. “I...I promised the client I wouldn't tell, actually. It's someone I wouldn't normally work for, who probably wouldn't normally ask me for help, so we're both keeping it secret.” He looked over at me again, _finally_ , and I shook my head at his dubious look. “Don't look at me like that, it's nothing illegal, it's just...complicated.”

Renji looked away and then back at me again. The conflict and the bit of sadness in his gaze made me want to punch myself in the face, but eventually he turned on his side away from me. “All right, get over here, Ichigo,” he said quietly, and I gladly wrapped myself around him, feeling a little better as I felt one of his hands entwine with mine. I found myself thinking about whether Tatsuki was right as I drifted off to sleep, feeling Renji's heartbeat as I pressed myself against his back.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> From the case files of Ichigo Kurosaki, P.I. The case continues, with an initial dose of self-realization, followed by a change of plans, a questionably legal method of information gathering covered by a guardian angel, a disappearance followed by getting chewed out by an angry partner, and concludes with me foolishly acting as the live bait and misdirection for a sting. I think there's also a visit to the hospital and a trip to bed, but it's hard to say in what order.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, All! Please note that this piece was written as sort of a continuation of an earlier piece that I and friends had written during a round-robin, which you can find using these links: [Part 1](http://writerx75.livejournal.com/18541.html) and [Part 2](http://writerx75.livejournal.com/18875.html#cutid1). PLEASE read that one first, since there are parts of this one that won't make sense without reading that one, but I didn't feel right about re-posting that one here, since I didn't write the whole piece myself.

Renji and I had still been tangled up with one another when I'd awoken early the next morning. It wasn't quite light out and Renji was still deeply asleep, on his back now. I had my arm slung across him and my face buried in his neck. His legs were wrapped around the one of mine that had ended up between his and I was struck with the sensation that I never wanted to move again, just stay like this forever. Of course, the minute I thought that, I felt I should get up and started rearranging myself gently, trying to get up in a way that wouldn't wake Renji.

I ended up face to face with him at one point and just had to stare, my gaze tracing his tattoos and the strong lines of his jaw, and stopping at his closed eyes. He looked so gorgeous and relaxed, but at the same time I couldn't get the memory of the way he'd looked last night out of my mind, and it stuck with me the whole time I went about getting ready. Tatsuki's flip comment ate at me as I remembered, and I found myself thinking about it seriously for the first time. I mean, I'd always blamed my own bad taste for a lot of the men I'd dated in the past, but it hadn't really occurred to me until now that I might share the responsibility for how badly some of my previous relationships had gone.

Now that I was beginning to think about it, however, I found myself mentally presented with a number of cringe-worthy incidents where I'd kept former lovers at arm's length, sometimes quite coldly, when they tried to get closer to me. I was still distracted by those memories as I went to check out the remaining Infinium sites, even though I tried hard to stop thinking about it. One thing in particular that I kept remembering as I attempted to focus on the old warehouse in front of me was the time Renji had found out I had a family. I'd been evasive when he'd excitedly asked about them, and just recalling the hurt look I'd seen in his eyes for a moment, before he turned away, was beginning to haunt me. I was also uncomfortably reminded that I'd skipped my family's last usual monthly dinner because of the fact that at the previous one they'd badgered me nearly the whole time about finally meeting “the man who captured your heart,” as my dad put it before I kicked him in the face.

I'd only made it to the eighth site out of ten by 10AM, even though I'd had an early start, so the sound of my phone ringing was a welcome distraction. “Ichigo,” Yoruichi said without prelude when I answered, “we've run into a snag.”

“What?” I asked with a frown.

“Ururu's scoured their computers, and the information you need isn't on them. She did find an e-mail addressed to the likely suspects reminding them that the invitation would come by regular mail, and to keep it in a safe place.”

 _Fuck_ , I thought, cursing paranoid bastards like Aizen who wouldn't send important information like this electronically.

Yoruichi laughed again then. “Relax, Ichigo, I can smell the gears in your brain overheating from here. Fortunately, you have us on the job. Because of the message, I asked Ururu to start scanning some of the major players' offices for a _safe_ place to put things.”

I chuckled, realizing that Yoruichi was about as paranoid as Aizen. Maybe she was worried about someone listening in on our cellphone signals, so what I took from her message was that she'd asked Ururu to look at some of Aizen's lieutenants' buildings to see if she could find any safes, like the obscure reference in the e-mail. As I thought of that, something occurred to me. “How did she do that?”

“You know these overcautious types,” Yoruichi responded, almost purring. “Always putting cameras everywhere. Anyway, she found something in #1's office – the location, as well as the combo.”

“Really?” I asked, wondering if it could possibly be that easy. “So, can you give me an interior layout and some cover to get in there?” Hell if I was going to try to break into somewhere with a million security cameras, but if Ururu could manage a convenient outage...

“I think that could be arranged,” Yoruichi replied, her voice low and pleased. “Come by at midnight tonight to talk about it. You know where.”

 _Urahara's, of course._ “See you then,” I said as I signed off.

I quickly wrapped up my study of the building I'd been watching, and a quick glance at the clock on the dash told me it was only slightly after 10AM. I wavered then, knowing I should go to the next couple of buildings on the list to finish scoping them all out and then maybe head home to get a little more sleep before the work I had to do tonight.

That wasn't what I wanted to do at all, though. Contrary to my usual constant feeling of energy when I'm on a case, I felt like I'd gotten up on the wrong side of the bed today, probably due to what had happened last night. What I felt strongly pulled to do was to go back to my house now. I knew Renji should still be there, probably awake by now, and I wanted to tell him...

What _did_ I want to tell him, exactly? That the sex was mind-blowing, but that I could finally admit to myself that I wanted him for a lot more than that? That I'd wake up while he was still sleeping and have to stare at him for a moment while my heart made funny, off-beat thumps in my chest? That he was just as good a friend as he was a lover? That on nights he didn't show up that I'd wake up sometime in the middle of the night, missing him? _He'd think I'm an idiot. I_ am _an idiot_ , I thought, but I realized much too late that somewhere in the middle of thinking that I'd begun heading back towards home.

I remember sitting outside in my car for a while once I got there, wondering what the hell I was doing before I forced myself to just get out of the car and go inside. At some point, as I was running up the stairs, it all became so clear to me. I wanted him. I wanted him with me. I knew exactly what I was going to say until the moment I stood outside the bathroom, the door open just a crack and steam lazily floating out, and suddenly I had no idea what to say.

Forcing myself to do _something_ , I opened the door and promptly forgot any thought in my head as I saw Renji stepping out of the shower. Trying to ignore the sight of steam still coming off his skin and the fact that he was naked and wet, I struggled to get my thoughts together. _What should I say – I'm sorry? I want you? I wanted to tell you-_

“Ichigo?” he asked, slipping a towel off the rack and settling it around his waist. “What are you doing home?”

I looked away for a moment, trying to stop getting distracted by his glistening skin and tattoos, as I fumbled for an answer. “Well, I've had a bit of a setback. I hired some help to get information about a meeting at the company I'm trying to help bust, one where they'll be discussing their illegal business, but it turns out that the only way to get the information is in person.”

Renji took a few seconds to digest that, but when he had, his face had paled. “Do you mean you're going to have to break into this company that the mob owns?”

“Well,” I replied, trying to sound positive, “at least they're not going to call the police if they catch me.”

“Yeah, they're going to shoot you in the head instead, idiot,” Renji growled, nearly under his breath. After he looked into my eyes, though, he clenched his fists and then sighed as he loosened them. “All right,” he finally said, his voice reluctant. “Don't take any stupid risks, though, OK?”

“Yeah, sure,” I mumbled and dropped my eyes, unable to keep looking at the grave look in his. Even as I stared at the floor, I could still see those serious eyes, though, and for the first time it got me thinking about how it must feel to date someone who could easily get killed at work. It also made my heart do funny things again as I began to appreciate Renji even more for being able to put up with it, but his voice interrupted my thoughts.

“So, I guess you came home now because you're going out tonight?” Renji asked, and I could see when I met his gaze again that he was smirking now, his previous seriousness forgotten. “I could think of a few ways to wear you out so you could get a good nap in.”

 _Hell if he didn't_ , I found myself thinking as I woke up later that afternoon, after 4:30. I'd been too tired to grab anything to wear after he'd finished with me, so I just headed straight for the shower and tried to get my thoughts together as I stood under the warm spray. After mentally cringing at the fact that I hadn't told Renji any of the admittedly chaotic thoughts that had been running through my head, I resolved that I definitely would the next time I saw him.

After that I tried to think about what I should do over the next few hours, and realized that the sun probably wouldn't have quite set yet, so I hurried to finish my shower and went out to try to scope out the last two Infinium Logistics buildings. I'd been able to get enough information by the time I got home a few hours later, and I took my time over dinner to transcribe my notes to the computer and to begin looking at everything I had so far to try to arrange it and make some sense of it.

One of the things in particular that I focused on was the building that had been identified as being the headquarters for Aizen’s #1 division manager. When I flipped back to Yoruichi's information, I found that Coyote Stark held that position, and the cryptic note beside his name said “Strategy and Tactics.” Raising an eyebrow, I went back to my notes about the building itself. Stark's area seemed to be half of a pair of twin office buildings positioned in an older, slightly run-down business park in an old section of Karakura. The building was three stories and was connected by a walkway with its twin. I pulled up and studied a map of the area and found that it backed up onto a floodplain, which explained the woods I'd seen behind it when I'd stopped across the street to scope it out. As I backed the map further out, I raised an eyebrow as I noted that there was an apartment complex not far away that bordered the same floodplain. Smiling, I realized I'd just figured out where to park when I visited that evening.

After carefully combing through all of the information I could find about the building, including searching Google Street View to see how much of it they'd been able to photograph, I realized it was getting late, so I started getting everything together for that evening. I dressed in some black jeans and sneakers, then added a long-sleeved dark navy t-shirt with a dark autumn-weight jacket over it. I got the small black backpack I'd purchased for such midnight expeditions and packed my notebook in it, some pictures and maps, and a small set of tools. I didn't have the cheek to own an actual set of lock picks, but I'd been able to modify some tools over the years that did the job well enough. It wasn't my specialty, but I was competent at getting locks open if need be. I threw a dark ski mask and some black gloves into the bag and said a quick mental prayer that no one else would be able to get a look into that bag. I thought for a while about whether I should bring my gun, but I decided against it, figuring that if I went expecting trouble, I was likely to get it.

I arrived at Urahara's shop by a few minutes to midnight and was ushered inside by Tessai. “Ms. Yoruichi is waiting for you,” he explained, bringing me to the same room in which I'd talked to her the other day. She and Ururu were both sitting at the table this time, and I ended up in the same chair I'd sat in before. The two of them had been looking at something on Ururu's laptop screen, but Yoruichi broke off to look up at me as I sat down. “All right, Ichigo,” she said with a grin, “here's what we found out. Stark's office is in the northwest corner of the third floor of the building.” Ururu turned her laptop around to show an architectural diagram of the building I'd been looking at earlier. His office was on the side farthest away from the walkway, and I memorized where in the building it lay. Yoruichi continued after a moment, “I take it you've probably had some time today to familiarize yourself with the layout of the surrounding area?”

I nodded as she glanced in my direction, and she smiled more widely in response. “All right then, we'll leave getting in up to you, but since we weren't able to get you the information you needed directly, we're willing to help you get it. We figured the thing you'd probably need the most help with would be the security cameras on all four corners of the building and the ones placed liberally throughout the interior. We were thinking it might make sense to make it look as if there's been some kind of short and have all of the cameras go down while you're there. How long do you think it might take you to get in and out?”

Thinking about what I knew so far, I shrugged. “It depends on a couple of things, including where in Stark's office the safe is.”

Yoruichi nodded. “It's covered by a false wooden panel in the wall to the left of his desk. From what Ururu saw, there's a seam off the side nearest to his desk that you press to make it slide open. He keeps the combination underneath his desk blotter.”

I'm sure my eyes were wide as I jotted all of that down in my notebook. “You've got to be kidding.”

She laughed then, and as always, I couldn't help but appreciate how freely she expressed herself as her lithe neck stretched back and she closed her eyes as the laughter bubbled out of her. “It doesn't sound real, does it? Here, have a look at the security tape.”

I looked at the video in progress as she turned the laptop in my direction and watched from a perspective above the head of a tall, lanky man behind a big wooden desk. As I watched, he leaned over to what looked like a building support, but when he pressed something, the wooden paneling on it slid back to reveal a wall safe. I couldn't help my quiet laugh as I watched him lift his desk blotter and peek at a yellow sticky note as he dialed the numbers of the combination, eventually popping the door open to take an envelope out of the safe.

I was still shaking my head as Ururu pulled the laptop back to her. “Unbelievable,” I commented, adding to Yoruichi's earlier observations. “Well done,” I finished, looking at Ururu. She looked over in my direction and nodded coolly but was unable to disguise the slight pink hue that rose to her cheeks after my comment.

My brain was working furiously now, trying to calculate how long the job would take based on what I knew, but I couldn't come up with a definitive answer. “How about this,” I proposed, “if you give me some way to communicate with you, once I'm there I'll let you know when I need you to black the cameras out and when I'm out of the way so you can let them go again.”

The two women looked at one another, and Ururu shrugged as I watched, then rose to go into the other room. “I think that should work,” Yoruichi responded. “Anything else you can think of?”

I was shaking my head in the negative as Ururu returned with something small in her hand. I took it and examined the earpiece, from which something sticky was hanging. I could see the shadow of a grin on her face as she said, “Put it on. The sticky piece goes along your jaw.”

“Ururu should be able to hear you even if you're whispering,” Yoruichi explained. “Try it out.”

When I walked to the corner of the room and whispered her name, Ururu nodded. “I can hear you.”

I said my goodbyes then, wanting to get over to the office building and get to work as soon as possible. As I got into the right neighborhood, I turned into the apartment complex I'd decided to park in and was pleasantly surprised to note that although the complex was older, as was most of this part of town, it was well kept. I threaded my way through three-story brick buildings towards the tall trees in the back that I knew were signs of the floodplain behind the apartments. I couldn't help but smile as I reached the visitor parking lot and saw that not only did it back up to the trees I'd been trying to reach, but I could also dimly see the office building I was trying to get to not far away. _Luck seems to be with me tonight_ , I thought.

Once I got closer to the office building, I leaned against a particularly tall tree. While still within the protective darkness the small forest offered, I began to scope out the place I was trying to get into. Noting that about half the lights in the parking lot were on, I realized that there would be no way I could approach the building without getting spotted by the external cameras. Mental note taken, I pulled out my binoculars and tried to get a closer study of the building itself, since there was enough light to see.

The building that was nearest to where I hid was the twin I wasn't here to see, but as I scanned the parking lot, looking for anyone who might be patrolling, I noticed something on one side of the building that looked like a series of horizontal lines jutting out from it. Adjusting my binoculars to the highest magnification, I moved to get a better look at that particular section of wall and then had to bite my tongue to stop myself from cheering.

What I'd spotted was a series of rungs sunk into the concrete of the building. From about eight or ten feet off the ground, they went all the way up to the roof. I managed to keep myself from yelling “Score!” by thinking about the fact that I wasn't ten feet tall. Sighing, I turned my binoculars back to the building, but I found myself biting my lip a moment later to stop from smiling. There was a garbage dumpster not far away from the rungs. I nearly shouted, but instead mentally thanked all of the gods who must have been looking over me that day.

“Ururu,” I said softly. “Are you still there?”

“I am. Are you ready?” she replied, her voice cool and competent.

“I am, but there's been a slight change of plans. Could you knock out the security cameras for the whole outside of the building and just the third floor? I think I've found a better way in. If it doesn't work out, I'll call back.”

“All right, they should be off in a moment,” Ururu replied and then paused for a few breaths. “OK, now you're good,” she finally reported.

I put on my ski mask and gloves before I went into the parking lot. Once I got there, I closed the dumpster lid (thankfully, it was the old metal kind) and hoisted myself up on top. Before I could lose my nerve, I backed up to the far edge of the dumpster and took a running leap for the rungs on the side of the building, the nearest rung being several feet away. I caught hold of the bottom-most, but one arm was yanked free as I swung to the side under the weight of my momentum. Kicking off the wall, I swung back and used that momentum to swing my free hand up to grab the next rung. After that, I quickly climbed the wall and reached the roof not long after.

Pausing a moment to catch my breath, I surveyed the flat tarpapered landscape up there before I moved to the side of the building nearest its neighbor. Walking that side, I grinned as I came upon something I'd been expecting. I could see the walkway strung between the two buildings, connecting the third floors. Sitting on the edge of the roof and swinging my feet over, I then stepped down onto the roof of the walkway, using that as my bridge between the two buildings.

Once I'd reached the roof of the building I was trying to get into, I was pleased to find that the door into the building was fairly easy to pick, even for someone like me who was out of practice. When I walked down a flight of stairs to the third floor, however, I ran into my first serious complication. The stairwell door had let me out into a small interior lobby containing nothing but elevators, a couple of potted trees, and doors into the offices, all of which were situated around the outer rim of the building. The doors were all locked by electronic card key, which made me nearly bang my head against the nearest doorframe. It was so obvious I should have thought of it, but it didn't occur to me until now that criminals might keep the same security systems as everyone else. I could try picking the lock, but there was no guarantee if I actually managed it that an alarm wouldn't be tripped wherever the security system was being monitored.

“Ururu,” I whispered. “Are you there? I've run into a problem.”

“What is it?” Her voice responded immediately, a touch of concern in her usual flat tone.

“All the doors are locked by card key. Can you get me in?”

I heard something that may have been a muffled curse, then a momentary pause before she said, “Take a look at the cardkey plate at the door where you're standing. Is there anything written around the edge?”

I bent down to get a close look and read Ururu the numbers embossed in tiny writing along the very edges. “All right, wait just a minute,” she told me once she had the information.

So, I waited. Since I looked at my watch so many times, I can report that it actually took her less than a minute to pop the lock, but to me that short span of time seemed to stretch into centuries. The building itself was probably part of the problem; since it was older, it made any number of creaks and groans in the otherwise silent evening. Each of those noises seemed louder to me than it probably was and I found myself unable to stay still, pacing between the door I was trying to get into and a potted tree near the elevators, alternately planning attacks for anyone who came through the doors and thinking that if I just hid behind the tree I could probably go unnoticed.

I somehow refrained from crying tears of joy once Ururu told me I could get inside to where the offices were, and I located the one I wanted with no trouble, finding the door closed but not locked. It was when I sat in the chair behind the big desk, the same one I'd seen the man in the security video sitting in, that I started to worry again. Even though I was now where I'd been trying to go, something just seemed off, and my stomach clenched in on itself nervously. Trying to put those thoughts out of mind, I instead focused on the bead of sweat on my forehead and checked the security camera behind me, confirming that its red functional light was off. Swiping my ski mask off to get more air, I kept it close at hand so that I didn't forget it and reached for the edge of the desk blotter.

Flipping up the edge of the blotter, I saw a yellow sticky note with “Safe combo,” written on it, which made me roll my eyes. Running my other hand along the seam of the wood paneling, it didn't take long before I found a catch and it slid open to reveal the safe door. After entering the combination I'd found, the safe door clicked open at the first try. I grabbed the messy pile of papers inside and began paging through them, carefully keeping them in the same order as I found them. It was the fifth page I came to that grabbed my attention; it was an invitation to a quarterly meeting where, “all business of the company will be discussed.” The wording made me lift an eyebrow, but the next sentence, which commanded that, “Vice Presidents and Division Managers are all required to be present, no exceptions,” made me think that this must be the meeting I'd been searching for information about.

When I pulled my notebook out to write down the time and place, however, my heart sank when I realized that the meeting had been called for 10PM tomorrow night at the Infinium Logistics headquarters building in Karakura. Sighing, I carefully wrote the information down and then checked it against the invitation one final time to make sure I'd copied everything correctly. Quickly scanning the rest of the papers in the stack, I didn't find anything else that seemed relevant, so I piled them all back together in my best approximation of the artful messiness I'd first found them in and moved to put them back into the safe. Raising my eyebrow at the guns, piles of cash and even a few pieces of gold in the safe, I left all of those untouched as I put the papers back exactly as they had been, closed the safe, and slid the panel shut. I was momentarily reminded of the words of an older detective I'd met when I'd started in this business who'd told me, “Don't steal from criminals, kid. They get even more grumpy about it than the government.” Chuckling softly, I slid my notebook and pencil back into my bag, put my ski mask back on, and made my way out of the office.

As I retraced my steps out into the night, I found my thoughts centered on the information I'd gotten, and not in a positive way. About the only good thing I'd found out tonight was that the meeting hadn't happened yet. The fact that it was tomorrow night wasn't great news, though, especially in light of the fact that when I'd gone to look at their headquarters building initially, I'd found it to be a security nightmare with a front desk staffed with security guards who seemed to patrol the grounds regularly, card key entry, and security cameras everywhere. _Of course, that's just on the outside_ , I thought glumly. _It's probably worse inside the building._

I let Ururu know once I got back to my car that she could turn the security cameras back on whenever she wanted, but she wasn’t ready to let me go yet. “Sure, Ichigo. Also, Ms. Yoruichi wanted me to find out from you where the meeting is.”

I thought about it for a moment, weighing whether or not I should tell her, but eventually came to the conclusion that if my initial idea about how to get the information had worked, they would both already know. “OK. Tell her that it’s in the headquarters boardroom tomorrow night, 10PM. As you know, this all completely confidential.”

“Of course,” she said, and I thought I heard a note of offended pride in her usual monotone that I would even bring it up. After a pause, however, she asked, “Why do you sound so down, Ichigo?”

“I don’t know if you’ve ever checked that place out,” I said with an annoyed sigh, “but it’s set up like a fortress. I’m not sure how I’m going to get in there.”

“Will you need our help?”

Thinking for a moment, I weighed my reluctance to get anyone else any more involved in this mess against the need to get the job done, but came up with no conclusions. “I’m not sure. I still need to think it over some more. Can I call tomorrow?”

“Yes. We’ll expect your call tomorrow afternoon.”

The connection went dead then, and I took off the ear piece and threw it in my bag along with the mask and gloves before starting up the car and heading for home. I'd been obsessively thinking about what I'd found out tonight for the entire drive and was still mulling it over once I got back, until I realized I'd promised to contact Renji to let him know how it went. Since I felt guilty about the idea of waking him up yet again in the middle of the night (hey, I _try_ to make it only once in a while...), I texted him to let him know how it had gone and that I'd call tomorrow afternoon.

It was only a few minutes later that I heard the buzzing that meant a return text message. “Whens the meeting?”

“I thought youd be asleep,” I replied, then added, “tomorrow, 10PM.”

There was a longer pause, then, “Couldnt sleep.”

I felt a lump in my throat as I looked at my phone, and for a long while I couldn't think of a thing to say. Finally, I just went for the cowardly way out and typed, “Maybe you should, uh, wear yourself out so you can. Think about me while you do.”

I got a smiley face in return, followed by, “Good suggestion. Night, Ichigo.”

“Night, Ren. Call you tomorrow afternoon?”

“You better.”

I chuckled as I put the phone away. I spent the next few hours thinking of ways to get into Infinium's headquarters and came up with several possibilities, one or two of which might actually work. Finally, around the time it was starting to get light out, I tumbled into bed, my face buried in the pillow Renji usually used, breathing in his scent and feeling like he was there somehow.

It was afternoon by the time I woke up, and a bit later than I'd intended. I quickly showered and got moving, using the time it took the coffee to brew and my bagel to toast to run through my final list of ideas and figure out what help I'd ask Yoruichi and Ururu for, having finally accepted that I'd definitely need it. I'd gotten myself mostly functioning by 2 and called Renji as I was putting my things together to head out. I got a funny feeling in my stomach when Renji's phone rang a number of times and then went to voicemail, since he was usually awake and available at that time of day, but it clenched tight when I heard a strange voice on the recording.

“Kurosaki,” the voice said, and it sounded oily and creepy all at once. “I think you know who I am. My name is Gin Ichimaru, and I've come to have something of yours in my possession. If you want to retrieve it, we'll be expecting you at 10PM tonight at our headquarters building. I don't think I need to mention that if you try to get the police involved that your item will be lost forever. See you then!”

The voicemail beeped and I hung up, then called back, hoping that the previous time I'd gotten the wrong number, but instead of Renji's reassuring deep tones, I only heard the same, grating message again. It was all I could do not to throw my phone across the room as I hung up. My thoughts started racing out of control, but I struggled to focus, deciding to call over to the tattoo studio in the hopes that Renji had gone to work early that day and this was all just a hoax. Once I got Shuuhei on the line, however, I found I wasn't so sure the call had been a good idea. “Can you tell me if Renji is there?” I asked him, hesitantly.

“No, he’s not here for another hour or two. Did you need me to pass on a message or something?” he asked.

I couldn’t help swearing, apparently not under my breath, because he quickly spoke up again, his voice suddenly tense. “What’s going on?” Then, after a pause where I said nothing and he swore, he said, “Wait a minute.”

It was muffled, but I thought I could hear him telling Rikichi that he had to take this call. A moment later, he was back again, probably shut in the back room. “All right, Kurosaki, spill it. What the hell’s going on?”

Belatedly realizing that I probably should have spent the past few moments thinking of what to say, I struggled to tell Shuuhei something that wouldn’t sound like a lame excuse. “Renji isn't going to be in today. I’ve been working on a case, and apparently the subject of my investigation figured out who I am because I got a message today saying that they have Renji.”

“What? How the fuck could you let this happen?” he shouted.

“I’ll get him back!” I replied, trying not to sound as defensive and suddenly scared as I felt.

“You’re damn right you’ll get him back, you stupid fucker!” I could almost hear him pacing. “Fuck! The whole fucking five years we’ve been in business and he’s never even called in sick once, even when he’s been so out of it I had to tell him to go the hell back home.” I heard a bang as if he'd punched something, and I gritted my teeth and waited for the rest of it. “Listen, asshole, do me one more favor while you’re at it. If you’re not looking for anything more than a good fuck, do us both a favor and break it off with Renji, because if you’re too dense to realize it, he’s looking for something more than that. When,” he said, his voice full of seriousness and anger, “ _when_ he’s back at work tomorrow – because anything else would mean the end of you – I’d better not hear one more thing about how distant you can be and how he doesn’t know what you want. Do you fucking understand?”

“It’s not…that’s not what I want…it’s not like that,” I said numbly, somehow unable to make my suddenly thick tongue explain away my bad reputation as unfortunate luck and my own general idiocy. I felt like an iron band had constricted my chest all of a sudden as I realized once again that Tatsuki was right, damn it, and I swore to any deity that might happen to be in the general vicinity that I’d get Renji back somehow and make things right.

“Well, man the fuck up and tell him, bastard! And someone better give me a fucking call the minute you get him back!”

The phone buzzed in my ear then as the connection broke, and I just stared at it stupidly for a moment before I closed it. For one of the first times in my life, I had no idea what to do. My brain seemed stuck and I clenched my fist tightly as the desire to have Renji with me seemed to swamp me, as well as the realization that there was no way that could happen at the moment. After a few black moments, I realized that I'd dialed Yoruichi's number and was just waiting dumbly, listening to her phone ring.

“What's up, Ichigo?” she finally answered in a low, teasing tone, and an intense feeling of gratefulness shot through me.

It still took me a few seconds to think of what to say, but I eventually came out with, “They have Renji.”

“How do you know?” she asked skeptically, her voice uncharacteristically hesitant.

“Well, one of the Infinium vice presidents left a weird message on Renji's voicemail, implying that they had him, which I got when I tried to call him earlier. I guess I could go by his place and see if he's there-”

“Ichigo-”

“-or maybe they just got hold of his phone somehow-”

“Ichigo-”

“-which wouldn't be bad, if he's somewhere else-”

“ICHIGO!” she shouted in my ear, making me wince. “Just shut up for a minute. First, it's safe to assume they have him if they told you like that, I was just asking to learn how you found out. And judging from how you're rambling, I'm guessing this was unexpected.”

“I'm not rambling,” I snapped. “I'm just concerned.”

“Ichigo, while it's really cute how worried you are for Renji-”

“I didn't say that!” I interjected, and I could feel the shock that had been freezing me in place start to burn off due to the anger that was starting to spring up.

“-you need to focus,” she continued, her voice maddeningly even and serious. “Pack whatever you think you'll need for your adventure this evening and come over. We'll figure out what to do, and we'll outfit you for going over there. I've already lost enough to these assholes. I am not going to lose this round, and I am not going to lose out on my bonus! Get your ass over here as fast as you can so we can start getting you ready!”

She sounded completely gung-ho while I sighed at the end of her little pep talk. _I should have known that's why she's so motivated_ I thought, rolling my eyes. “All right, I'll be on my way soon,” I said before hanging up. Throwing whatever I thought might help into my bag, I locked up and rushed over to the Urahara shop.  
__________________________________________________________

Hours later, as I walked up through the immaculately groomed garden in the front of the Karakura headquarters of Infinium Logistics, a 25-story building in white concrete with dark tinted windows, I found I was barely registering my surroundings due to the fury I felt. It hadn't taken long for the shock to fully wear off, and by the time I'd made it to the Urahara shop, I was spitting mad. I found myself repeating in my mind now what Yoruichi had told me then.

 _“Play along, Ichigo,”_ she'd said. _“I know you're mad, and so am I, but if we want to finish this job successfully, you need to get into that meeting, and you need to convince them that they have the upper hand. It'll be easier than we thought, since you have an invitation now. Just bite your lip and play the game for a while, and then we'll hit them so hard they'll never know what happened.”_

My teeth were clenched as I went into the building, and by the time the two security guards heard my name and immediately pulled me into a small room nearby to frisk me, I was grinding them together so hard it's a wonder they didn't shatter. By the time one of the men had told me to “assume the position” over a desk and said as he was basically groping me, “You know, my partner's hanging out across the room because he hears you're sweet on the boys,” I couldn't help but let out an inelegant snort of laughter, however.

I briefly surveyed the man, whose hands now seemed to be lingering on my ass, and replied, “Well, in a general sense, that's right. If, however, this is your un-subtle way of trying to pick me up, let me assure you that in my opinion, an ugly, rude bastard like you would have problems getting a date no matter what gender you were going for.”

I just about had time to finish what I was saying before I was gasping due to the sucker punch in the gut. _Painful, but not altogether unexpected._

“Be careful,” the thin guy leaning on the wall said. “The boss told us specifically not to rough him up.”

“Ah, I see your friend here is a rebel,” I replied, looking back at the leaning man. “And as for you,” I continued, turning to the one who'd punched me as I painfully straightened up and tried to make it look as if it was nothing, “if this is another sample of your seduction technique, I think I should tell you that I'm not one of those guys who likes it rough. If you care to go another round, however, I will kick your homely ass from here to Toledo. Or, perhaps you're not actually up to socking someone who can fight back?”

The man gave me a weasely, mean look, as if he'd really like to punch me again but was too afraid to. Luckily for him, his partner stepped forward. “Come on, let's just bring him upstairs.”

The elevator ride was blessedly silent, and it wasn't until we went through a set of heavy wooden doors on the 25th floor that things got interesting again. The room that I saw was set on one corner of the building, so windows flanked a big, glossy wood conference table on one side and one end. The security guards pushed me forwards to the man in the glasses that I'd seen a picture of on the website. “What did he have on him?” Aizen asked them. They produced the cell phone and mini-recorder they'd taken from the pockets of the leather jacket I was wearing and the gun they'd taken from my back waistband. “Very good,” he told them. “You may leave now.”

I took the moment of silence following that to scan the table quickly, and I couldn't help but grin as I spotted Renji almost right away. He'd been looking angry the moment I saw him, but when he spotted me as well, he returned my grin but after that I could see him tense up almost imperceptibly and give me a sharp look. _You didn't come here alone, did you_ , I could read in it. In reply, I shook my head slightly, hopefully not enough that anyone else would notice, lifted my hand slightly, and then gave a brief smile that I hoped held more confidence than I felt. _No, just wait_ , I tried to convey to him in my glance. Happily, I saw him relax just the slightest bit, which made me think he'd understood.

“Mr. Kurosaki, thank you for joining us,” Aizen said, bringing my attention back to him. I didn't have any trouble switching to a scowl as I looked back at the man.

“You didn't seem to leave me much of an option,” I replied. “What is it that you want?”

“Well, when we found out that you broke into our offices last night-” he began, but I interrupted.

“What? Where did you hear that?” I asked in annoyance. _How the hell did they find out about that? I thought I'd covered everything..._

“I found your picture this morning in one of the micro-cameras I've installed in all the company safes,” another man broke in, with a cheerful tone and a grin, and I thought I recognized him from his picture on the website as Gin, the one who'd left the message. “Similar cameras are used outdoors as wildlife camera traps. In this case, I've programmed them to take a picture of anyone opening the safe outside of normal business hours. Most of the time they don't amount to anything, but in this case, well, your look is very distinctive and you have quite a reputation in this town, so it wasn't hard to track down someone who knew you, and knew what you value.”

I looked over at Renji with a glance that said _“See? This is why I don't have tattoos.”_ He just replied with a raised eyebrow that told me that he still thought it was because I didn't have the guts to get one done, to which I scowled in reply.

“So, Kurosaki,” Aizen continued, “I knew that there's only one person we're in dealings with who'd be stubborn enough to hire someone to find out more about us in order to improve their negotiating position, and that's Kuchiki.”

I bit my lip to prevent myself from rolling my eyes. _Play the game, play the game_ , I thought, hearing Yoruichi's words in my ears again. I did my best to look like I'd been caught and was worried, but I could only hope it was convincing. I couldn't believe I'd been caught in such an amateurish way, though, and I wanted to kick myself for it. Aizen's next words brought my attention back to him, and the more I listened, the more I could feel myself scowling.

“Because I'm a generous man, I'm going to let you sit in on this meeting, and you can find out everything about my business and what we're planning to do once we have control of Kuchiki Industries. Once you've heard all of that, though, it's unfortunate that we're going to be unable to let the two of you talk about it.”

My fists were clenched now as I looked at his seemingly benevolent expression, and I had to work really hard not to reach out and punch him in the face. _Play the game_ , I reminded myself, trying to calm down. “Why not let Renji go now?” I asked, trying to look as scared as I could muster over my now fiery rage. It was getting less difficult, however, since I was more worried about Renji now than anything else. “The only reason you brought him here was to lure me over.”

I couldn't help but glance at Renji as I said that, and shook my head slightly at his glare in return. He relaxed a bit but still looked pissed. “I'm sorry, Mr. Kurosaki, but that's impossible,” Aizen replied, still smiling like a saint. “Technically, we've already committed a crime in bringing him here, and I think he knows by now that we're going to be discussing others. The two of you will be disposed of together after the meeting here; perhaps Kuchiki can take your dead bodies as a warning to fall in line.”

And then I saw that flat deadness I'd seen in his gaze in the picture, eyes with no human feeling left in them, and my worry about the situation spiked to new levels. I clamped my mouth shut and just glared at Aizen in reply as he continued to smile that maddeningly benevolent-looking grin. “All right then. If someone could offer Mr. Kurosaki a seat,” Aizen requested, his glance traveling over the packed conference table.

"Why doesn't he sit here,” Grimmjow replied, smiling like a shark and rising from his chair. My eyes went wide as I actually noticed him for the first time, and then I scowled as Aizen motioned me to go in that direction. _I guess he got out early for good behavior_ , I thought. As I neared the empty chair, Grimmjow put his hand on my shoulder, as if to guide me, and bent his head to my mine. “You look good, Ichigo,” he murmured into my ear. “Good enough that I'd be willing to pull some strings to give you a goodbye fuck before you get your head blown off for real.”

Now, I have to take a moment here to admit that I'd always liked Grimm's voice. It was deep and rough and when he'd talk low into my ear like that, it used to be able to get me going in a minute. At that moment all I felt was annoyance at his fucking presumption, however. “Grimm,” I replied in a clearly audible tone, “I told you the last time I saw you that it was over between the two of us. Get your hands off of me.”

His eyes narrowed and he muttered, “You're such a little whore for cock. I'm sure you'll want one last good fuck as a send off.”

I glared at him as I sat, now remembering one of his less charming habits that I didn't miss at all. I guess some people are into it, but I find it a complete turn off to be insulted in the middle of sex. Actually, it pisses me off enough to want to fight, so now that I think about it, maybe that's why Grimm used to do it... “Yeah, I like cock,” I replied calmly, at a conversational volume. “And I don't have a problem admitting it, unlike some people,” I continued, glancing up at Grimm with what was probably a completely evil look. “Of course, once I beat you in hand-to-hand combat, it seemed to loosen your tongue. It _was_ pretty fucking hot, really, the way you begged and moaned for it-”

“Shut up!” he hissed in return, leaning in as if he wanted to shut me up himself.

“Then get your fucking hands off me, Grimm,” I said, glaring at him and willing him to move his hand off my shoulder.

He did quickly and stepped back a little, as if he gave me enough space I'd stop talking. As for me, my gaze swept the table quickly, and I saw that some of his colleagues were giving him the most curious and interested looks. I darted a glance almost directly across the table at Renji and couldn't help my look of surprise. I don't know exactly what I'd expected after that exchange, but having Renji almost glaring at me, as if he'd somehow been cheated, wasn't it. “So, you'd top him and not me?” he asked, his voice rough.

I shuddered as everything inside me seemed to grind to a halt, and I blinked, trying to gather my racing thoughts before answering. I know it sounds ridiculous, but for the moment, I forgot why we were there, and the rest of the board room and even the world around us had disappeared and he was the only other person there. “You...I didn't know you wanted...I thought...” I trailed off and watched Renji turn his face to the side slightly.

I'd never seen him blush, and he wasn't now, but the embarrassed look on his face was probably even more expressive than that would have been. “I thought maybe you wouldn't be into it, so I didn't say anything,” he murmured, but somehow it was louder to me than if he'd shouted it.

Suddenly, I was smirking as I tried to catch his eye. “You know,” I replied, and I could hear how low and rough my own voice sounded as I spoke, “all you have to do is ask for it.”

Renji's head shot up and he looked at me with suspicion at first, but something about my lustful grin convinced him. He shot me an interesting look of his own then, all half-lidded fire, and opened his mouth to speak before he was rudely interrupted.

“Gentlemen,” Aizen’s voice sounded out, and the two of us both turned as one to glare at him. It was on the tip of my tongue to yell at him to shut up, but somehow I swallowed it at the last minute. _Probably better not to irritate him so much that he decides to put a bullet in my head before the backup gets here_ , I thought.

“Please, gentlemen,” he continued, his smile seeming to have a little edge now, “we really do need to begin the meeting. You can finish this…charming conversation in whatever time you have afterwards.”

 _Fuck that_ , I remember thinking. _I’m living through this for sure now_. I stole another look at Renji, thinking about what he’d said, when I noticed the man standing by him for the first time, a gun pointed at Renji’s head. If I could have glared at myself for my denseness I would have, but instead I glared at him, memorizing his features so that I could deal with him properly later. He was fairly tall and thin with shoulder-length pink hair and designer glasses that somehow matched his expensive-looking suit. The man seemed highly irritated, however, and I figured it had at least something to do with the bruise along his jawline, a split lip, and the start of a really big black eye. I smiled to myself, enjoying the physical evidence of Renji’s struggle not to come along quietly, and resolved to ask him about it later.

I turned carefully in the direction of the first presenter of the evening as the reality of the situation seemed to sink into my mind again, and mentally reviewed my priorities, reminding myself to keep focused and not spend all my time staring at Renji. First, keep rolling. I twisted the wrist I held in my lap so that I could see the snap on the cuff of the leather jacket I wore and gave a sideways glance down. Something that looked like a little reflector winked back at me greenly, causing me to grin again. The reflector was actually an LED that was telling me that the tiny wireless cameras and condenser mics, looking like fancy studs holding the collar of my coat down, were hard at work. Yoruichi had impressed on me when she’d brought me the jacket I now wore how expensive it had been to have it made, with batteries and a powerful broadcaster sewn into the heavy lining of the coat, and promised a very high bill for my client if anything happened to it. My efforts to distract the people that I knew would be frisking me from focusing on the coat had been successful, fortunately, so I was still wearing it. Unfortunately, it seemed it had been sized for Urahara, so although it fit otherwise I couldn’t button it up, something that didn’t seem to matter in the warm conference room. Ururu had arranged that the video and audio output would be wirelessly streamed to several places so that whatever I could film wouldn’t be lost, regardless of what happened to Renji and I.

Just the idea of something happening to him made me swallow painfully, and I gave Renji a sideways look automatically, as if to assure myself he was still there. He met my gaze, his look intense, as if waiting to follow my lead. _Second priority_ , I thought as I tried to deliver a cocky grin I wasn't quite feeling at the moment, _get Renji out of here, regardless of the cost_. It was my fault that he was in the room at all, involved in something that didn't touch on him in the least, and so I needed to do anything I could to be sure he could get out of there safely.

Last, I needed to get out of there myself, or at least in repairable shape. Since I'd resolved that there was no way I was going to die now, I just had to figure out a way to make all of that happen, and whatever Yoruichi had planned was the key to that. I turned to the next speaker, not really focusing on the reports about how many people had been smuggled to what locations and how much profit the company was making as a result, or how many tons of drugs had been delivered and the millions of dollars that had been made. The reports did make the nervous tension in my stomach heighten, however, because everything I heard made it clear that the people around the table had no regard for anyone or anything other than making money, and that killing the two of us wouldn't be any more difficult mentally for any of them than going to lunch. As the presentations continued, I found that I was listening and waiting for sounds outside the room, hoping that Yoruichi's plans were actually going to materialize. She'd disappeared a couple of hours before I came here, leaving Ururu and I to finalize the details of the wireless recordings. When I'd asked Yoruichi what she had in mind, she'd laughed.

“Ichigo, just trust me. We need to get enough on these guys to put them in jail for the rest of their lives, and then I'll be there at just the right time to help you two get out. I'll be monitoring you the whole time, just in case things get bad early,” she’d said, dangling a sticky ear piece in her hand. “I just want to see if I can get anyone else interested in helping out, too.”

She'd been completely closed-mouthed when I'd asked for details, just saying that she'd take care of everything herself if she was unable to get more help, so unfortunately I had little idea of what her plans were, so I waited, trying not to start at every creak the building made.

It was when the pink-haired man behind Renji began to talk about how much money the company stood to make from the illegal human experiments he was conducting that her first move occurred. When the lights went out, I was up and moving before I realized it, standing while shoving the chair I was sitting in backwards in Grimm's direction. At the same time, I'd flung the edges of the leather jacket wide and launched myself at the big polished wood table in front of me, and then I was sliding across it on my chest in Renji's direction. I was about halfway across when I saw Renji and the pink-haired man slightly in the muzzle flash of his gun.

It was suddenly dark again and I heard a choked snarl that didn't sound quite human as my heart and stomach sank into the ground. I heard shouts from others in the room to hold fire as I collided with a chair at the end of my slide. In my memory of where the pink-haired man had been standing as he shot at Renji, I grabbed for his gun arm on one side and his shoulder on the other. It felt like I was gripping his forearm on the side with the gun, so I quickly slid my hand out to his wrist, fury making my hold strong. My other hand had somehow gotten hold of my punch dagger as I'd leaped out of my chair; the idiot who'd been frisking me had been way too distracted to find it on my key ring, I guess.

“You didn't think you could shoot him and get away with it, did you?” I asked gutturally, almost unable to speak as my stomach lurched, leaning in close to the man's ear as my fist moved from his shoulder, up his neck, to the edge of his jaw as his other arm shook, obviously trying to move to get a shot off on me. As I heard him breathe in to ready himself for a reply, I pulled back a little and then gave a short punch, burying the dagger in his neck, along the edge of his jaw, the path the jugular takes. The only reply he gave was a gurgling shriek and a gunshot at the floor at the same moment all of the windows around us shattered.

Instinctively, I let go of the man to crouch in the chair I'd landed in, only to realize for the first time that it was empty. I would have started to wonder where the fuck Renji was, but the sudden sound of gunfire from every direction caught my attention instead, so I dropped to the ground, rolling under the large conference table at almost the same moment. Somehow, through the noise of the firing, I heard a grunt as I hit something. Steeling myself for an attack and realizing I no longer had anything in hand, I relaxed a split second later as I realized I'd recognized the voice. “Renji,” I said, leaning in so that he could hear me over the gunfire, “is that you?”

“Ichigo?” I heard his voice respond, a little more weakly than I was used to hearing, but just the sound filled me with such relief that before I knew it my heart seemed to have risen back out of the floor and I was gripping his arm tightly. He hissed in response, and I immediately let go.

“Fuck, I forgot! Where did that pink-haired bastard shoot you?” I moved my ear near his mouth so that I could hear his response, since the sound level in the room was nearly deafening now.

I heard something about Renji's shoulder, and that he thought he'd just gotten winged, so I couldn't help but reach out to try to investigate, more gently this time. His shoulder felt slick with blood and my stomach seemed to contract in on itself, thoughts flying through my mind about how bad his injury might be. I shook my head, trying to drive them away, and moved to act instead. Carefully, I tried to wipe my left hand clean on my jeans, knowing that I probably had some of the pink haired man's blood on it, and then threw the leather jacket off and to the side. Scrabbling with it, I pulled off my long sleeved t-shirt, thankful that I'd chosen dark colors that day.

“Try to relax,” I told Renji as I folded the bottom of the shirt about even with the width of the sleeves to form a long makeshift bandage. “This is probably going to hurt when I tie it.”

I put the part of the t-shirt with the most fabric on it over where it seemed like the most bleeding was occurring on Renji's arm, and then folded the arms of the shirt under his arm, finally tying it fairly tightly. The only thing I heard out of him was another hiss as my first knot pulled in. “Are you all right?” I asked, putting my mouth near his ear and almost whispering, since the gunfire in the room had dwindled to the infrequent shot.

“Yeah,” he said, and seemed about to say more, but the lights suddenly went back on. I looked at him, eyes wide, my finger pressed to my lips. He nodded, and I bit my lip as I studied him for a moment, a little blood on his face, his eyes weary.

Ripping my glance away, I looked nervously around, my gaze covering both open sides of the conference table we were underneath. Bodies lay to either side of us, and I leaned over to tug a gun out of someone's lifeless hand which had somehow ended up near our feet. I could hear murmured voices discussing something and coming closer. I bit my lip as I realized I was crouched protectively over Renji, but I didn't move as I somehow tried to protect him from both sides. I still wasn't sure yet who was the victor in the fight, if there was one at all, so I had to be prepared for any possibility.

I held my breath as footsteps approached from the side of the table I'd been sitting on not long before. They sounded like heavy boots, making a crunching, grinding noise as they walked over shattered window glass and ground it into the carpet. I looked Renji in the eye, hoping it wasn't the last time and trying to convey everything I'd never said about how much he meant to me, in case I'd never be able to. A pair of legs in black ripstop fabric pants and black combat boots appeared at the edge of where we could see and began to slowly walk by. I tried to calm my breathing and aim the gun, reminding myself not to fire until I'd identified who this was. Suddenly, the legs stopped and I saw Kenpachi's face appear, peering under the conference table.

“Kurosaki?” he asked. “What the hell happened to your shirt?”

“Don't ask,” I muttered as I relaxed to sit on the floor next to Renji. “I guess this means you're in control here now?”

He made a dismissive noise and looked a little depressed again. “I guess. It was sort of disappointing, really. They didn't put up that much of a fight.”

I lifted an eyebrow as I looked at him for a moment. “In that case, we're coming out,” I replied, putting the leather jacket back on and helping Renji out from under the table.

“I'm not an invalid, you know,” he grumbled at me.

“No,” I agreed. “You've just lost a lot of blood. Don't be an idiot; sit here before you fall over.”

He stumbled a little before I was able to get him into the chair I'd sat in before. Renji glared at me for a moment, but his expression softened when he had a chance to study mine. “I'll be all right, Ichigo,” he said in a low voice, and I had to bite my lip again before I said anything stupid.

I looked around, trying to get hold of the situation, and saw a few motionless bodies on the floor. “So, how many did you get?” I asked Kenpachi.

He grinned savagely in response. “Four, it looks like. Not too bad, since we only sustained a few injuries ourselves,” he finished, looking over in the corner where one of his men was bandaging the wound of another. I raised my eyebrow, but then I realized they were all wearing flak vests which probably explained the lack of fatalities.

“Was one of those bodies a pink-haired guy with a knife in his head?” I asked, craning my neck to peer over to the other side of the table but not being able to see that far.

Kenpachi laughed then, throwing his head back. “I thought that knife looked familiar! I'm glad to see you're such a dangerous man, Kurosaki. When are we sparring again?”

 _Never, if I can help it_ , was my first thought, but I smiled instead. “Maybe you should try my teacher. She says I'm the only decent opponent she has these days, but I really think she's just being kind. She seems to be well beyond my level now.”

Yoruichi took that moment to enter the room. She was wearing a completely form-fitting black bodysuit and anything she'd wanted to carry with her seemed to be strung from a belt at her waist. Kenpachi turned to watch her with all the hunger of someone who hadn't eaten in weeks being shown his favorite dish. “That sounds good,” he said, and I realized he was replying to me even though he wasn't looking in my direction. “I've always liked strong women.”

Grinning, and obviously enjoying the attention, Yoruichi came up to Renji and stuck out her hand. “Hi, I'm Shihoin Yoruichi. Ichigo and I have been friends since he was a kid, so I'm a little disappointed he hasn't come by to introduce you to us sooner.”

“Yoruichi,” I growled, but she just laughed.

“Anyway, it's nice to finally meet you, Renji. Just in case Ichigo 'forgets' to tell you, we've got some business to discuss, once you're feeling better.”

He lifted an eyebrow and turned to me, then turned back to Yoruichi and replied, “It's always nice to meet a friend of Ichigo's, especially one so beautiful.”

“Ichigo, I hope Renji's manners rub off on you,” she said with a final grin at him. “So, are you two coming along with us?” she asked, watching as two of Kenpachi's men re-entered the room and made signals that it was time to go.

I shook my head. “No, there's too much evidence that we've been here. Our fingerprints are probably all over the room. My cellphone is here somewhere, broken though it is, and my knife is embedded in a guy's head. I think I need to stay and deal with the police.”

“I'll leave it to you, then,” she said with a grin. She turned to Kenpachi with a raised eyebrow and he gave her a savage grin as the two of them moved out of the room along with the last of his men. Once they left, I was suddenly impressed by the chill in the room as the autumn wind whipped inside through the broken windows, and I tried to roll the chair Renji was in to get him farther away from the open windows, but it was slow going due to all the broken glass. He tried to help me, but there wasn’t as much strength in his movements as usual, and I could see that he was looking drowsy. I felt my stomach knot as I looked at the blood that had run down his arm. What I’d been able to do seemed to have stopped a lot of it, but the bloodstains on his jeans and shirt looked so big. I didn't have long to think about it before the room was suddenly full of police, including a familiar face.

“Ichigo!” he said, apparently happy to see me.

“Shinji,” I replied with a nod. “I'm glad they sent you around this time.”

“I wouldn't have missed it,” he said, his features suddenly taking on a hard cast. “I've been after Aizen even since his first major fraud. I was part of the crew who arrested him that time, but we couldn't make anything stick. It seems like this time someone took their case against him even further, though.”

He was looking at me with a raised eyebrow as if waiting for the story, but I found my eyes straying down to Renji, who seemed to have fallen into a troubled doze. “I'd love to tell you the story, but I really need to get him taken care of,” I said, still looking at Renji.

When I finally glanced up at Shinji, he was grinning slyly at me. “Oh, is this your guy? Now I've _definitely_ got to hear what the hell went on here.” I looked at him desperately and he laughed. “OK, I'm not that much of an asshole. There were some ambulances following us up here, and I'd guess the stretchers will be here in a couple of minutes. Just give me the short version now, but I'll be expecting you at my office tomorrow to give me all the details, right?”

“I'll be there,” I replied gratefully and then launched into a summary of the story, including how I'd gotten into the mess in the first place and how the situation that night had developed, but leaving out any mention about who my client was, or who shot the place up. “Renji and I were both under the conference table from around the time the lights went out,” I concluded. “When the shooting stopped and the lights came back on, the only people left in the room were dead ones.”

He shook his head, watching as Renji was transferred to a stretcher. “Sounds like some rival gang decided to take them out, or something,” Shinji said, giving me a curious glance but not saying anything further. “All right, then, I'll see you tomorrow to hear all the rest.”

“Thanks, Shinji,” I said as I followed the stretcher out of the room.

“You know, you'd get into a lot less trouble if you joined the force,” his voice followed me, along with his familiar refrain. I just shook my head in reply. He'd been trying to recruit me, without success, since the day I'd met him, during one of my first cases. I looked down at Renji as we got into the elevator. His eyelids were cracked open, and he smiled at me before closing them again. I decided worrying about public displays was ridiculous in a situation like this and held his hand all the way out to the ambulance.  
_________________________________________________________

“Renji, come on, we've got to go inside,” I said, shaking him gently to try to wake him. Finally, his eyes opened and he floundered a bit trying to get out of the cab. I was able to give him a hand, but he kept leaning on me even after the cab had gone, and by the time we'd made it into the elevator, he'd moved on to groping. I was going to protest before he silenced me with a kiss so deep he took my breath away.

I hadn't wanted to leave his side when we got to the hospital, but a woman with a kind face and silvery hair had finally managed to calm me down enough to bring me to a nearby waiting room, assuring me that it simply looked like Renji just needed some stitches. I paced until they brought him back, and the loopy grin he'd given me nearly made my heart stop.

It was difficult to move from the elevator to the front door because all Renji seemed to want to do was to make out. They'd put his stitched-up arm in a little sling, but his free hand was moving all over, down inside my jeans and freely roaming inside the leather jacket, which was still the only thing I had on after having used my t-shirt as a bandage. I finally protested when he pinched one of my nipples. “Come on, we're going inside,” I demanded, grabbing his good hand and dragging him after me.

I managed to fumble the door shut and locked and to maneuver the two of us to the bedroom as Renji continued to feel me up. He didn't stop until I managed to flop him into bed, but instead looked me up and down as I took the leather jacket off and carefully put it on a chair in the corner. “Good,” he nearly purred. “Take the rest off, too.”

I was glad that the only light on was the small one on the bedside table that wasn't too bright, because it was possible I was blushing. “You know,” I said as I took off his boots and put them on the floor, “I would think you have a lot of other things to think about, with five stitches in you.”

He shrugged, then frowned and stopped moving his injured arm. “Not really. They said I was pretty lucky at the hospital. From what they told me, you're a lot more likely to get infected when the bullet goes into you, but I dodged at the last moment so the wound's a lot more like a cut.”

“So, how did you know to move, anyway? The last time I saw you, that pink haired guy was pointing his gun at your head,” I said, working carefully to take Renji's sling off and trying to keep my voice even as I remembered.

“I could tell from the way you looked that you had something in mind,” he replied, grinning slyly at me. “I just waited and got ready to go, because it was obvious that you were waiting for something.”

I grinned in response, unable to help it after seeing his. “Yeah, I didn't miss that nice shiner he was sporting. I figured that was you.”

“Hell if I was going to let some idiots kidnap me,” he replied, still smiling. “I was winning, too, against him _and_ his four friends, until they pulled guns on me.”

Looking at his shirt, I realized that it was already partly shredded where it had been slit by the bullet, and it appeared to have been cut further in the emergency room. Sighing, I got some scissors from the next room and finished cutting the rest of his shirt off, figuring that it had already been ruined and not wanting to disturb his injury any further. “Are you going to cut off the rest of my clothes, too?” Renji asked, his voice suddenly rough and low.

I tried to ignore that comment and refused to look him in the eye, instead slowly unbuttoning his jeans and unzipping his fly, then stopping and not looking up. “Look, I'm sorry you got dragged into this today.”

“It wasn't you who dragged me into it, remember? It was those idiots,” he said, his voice light. “Besides, it wasn't all bad. I got to meet your friend Yoruichi, after all.”

“I can't believe you said that to her,” I replied as I slowly pulled off Renji's jeans. “I mean, she's already some kind of egomaniac.”

“Ichigo, just because someone knows they're attractive, it doesn't mean they don't like to hear someone else remind them.” I looked up at him as he finished speaking and suddenly found my heart in my throat, looking at him all splayed out in bed, and I felt a wave of guilt as I looked at the fresh bandage taped to his shoulder.

“Fuck, it probably messed up your tattoo and everything,” I said, trying to think about the last time I'd seen it, because apparently it was going to be the last time I saw it whole. “I really am sorry.”

When I finally looked up into Renji's eyes, expecting him to be angry, I was surprised by the heat in his expression instead. “This is the first time I can remember hearing you apologize for _anything_ , Ichigo,” he said, and his voice was low and hot and so goddamned sexy that I could feel myself start to respond. “I think I'd better take advantage of it.”

Before I really knew what was happening, Renji had shifted and brought me in close to him. I scrambled to avoid touching his bad shoulder, but I couldn't manage to focus on it too much when he was kissing me like that. “Look, we can't do this tonight,” I said, trying to back away, but he had his good arm around me and was holding on to me tightly. “You need to rest, and you just got stitches.”

“Oh, for what I have in mind, I won't have to move around too much,” he said, and somehow his tone had gotten even lower and I could feel my cock twitch in anticipation.

“Renji, no, you should-”

“Don't make me wait anymore, Ichigo,” he said, and his tone had changed, sounding commanding and slightly pissed off as he moved back a little to look me in the eye. “When I was sitting there with a gun to my head, thinking that I was unlikely to make it out of that stupid board room, just hearing that blue-haired pretty boy try to _deny_ that he got something from you that I wasn't going to live to get made me so fucking angry that I wanted to jump across the table and rip his head off. We lived, Ichigo,” he said, his tone dropping again as his mouth moved closer to my ear. “Don't tell me we don't get to celebrate that. I want you so bad. I can't tell you how many times when we were fooling around that I'd see you all hard and ready and I'd just want to push you down and ride your cock until you couldn't take anymore.”

By now I was breathing so hard it probably sounded like I was hyperventilating, just thinking about Renji riding me, and my jeans were so tight they were painful. I pulled back then, even against Renji's restraining hand, and I couldn't help but smirk at his disappointed expression. “You and your dirty mouth,” I said as I got my jeans and underwear off as quickly as I could, watching Renji return my smirk, looking even more sly than I did, I'm sure.

“You know you love it,” he said, grinning now as he watched me nearly rip his underwear off.

“Yeah, well, you'd better only lay there and look gorgeous or we're not going to be doing anything for the next week or so, and you sure as hell better not pop any of those stitches,” I warned, but I knew it probably sounded pretty weak because I was staring at Renji's body then. Somehow, the sight of him all laid out like that, knowing what we were about to do, caused me to see him in a completely new light. I reached out and ran my hands gently along his sides, trailed along the tattoos up his chest and neck to his face. “So fucking gorgeous,” I breathed into his lips before I kissed him, and when I came back up for air, he turned away as I caught the edge of the embarrassed look on his face.

“What, no one you've been with before has ever told you that?” I asked, shocked, and the look in his eyes as he darted them to meet mine for a second seemed to confirm that. “They're all a bunch of goddamned fools then. I think you're the most gorgeous man I've ever seen, Renji, and I want to make you feel so good that you scream for me,” I said, kissing his lips once more before I moved on, tracing the tattoos on his neck up to his ear, then sucking on his earlobe. A tremor ran through me as he groaned softly when I did that, and suddenly I wanted to trace every inch of his body so that I could hear more of those sounds. The cry he made as I bit and sucked on his collarbone, and then the moans he made when I moved to his nipples, sucking on them and teasing them with my tongue, sounded so different than his usual growls and occasional grunts. It sounded like he'd abandoned all of that to leave himself open to me, and it made me so hard for him that I could barely think. So, I forced myself to go slowly, licking and running my fingers along those tattoos on his chest and abs, tasting the pre-come he'd spilled so far and feeling like I was getting drunk on all of the delicious soft sounds he was making.

“Fuck, I remember when I first saw your cock,” I said as I tried to put my hand around it, lifting it to my lips as I felt it jump in my hand, “I just wanted to get it inside me.” And then I was sliding my lips down his length, relishing the gasp and shudder Renji made as I did.

“No, stop,” he ground out, and I pulled back after a few seconds, looking at him. “I'm going to come if you keep doing that, and I don't want to yet. I want you inside me first.” The sly look he was giving me made me shiver, so I stopped and grabbed one of the pillows instead, gesturing for him to raise his hips as I slid it under him, and when he bent his knees and spread his legs, all I could do at first was look.

“I can't believe you're this fucking beautiful everywhere,” I said, and then I was pushing his legs back so that I could see him better before I leaned down to swipe my tongue over his entrance. The keening moan he gave was such a turn on that I found myself grinding against the mattress just to take the edge off, but fuck if I didn't want to hear more of _that_. By the time he'd moved to full-throated groans as I slid my tongue partway inside him, I had to cut it short because I was going to come if I kept it up, so I moved away a little to fumble for the lube and a condom in the nightstand. I glanced at Renji and couldn't help but smile at his half-lidded eyes and wide pupils, and the expectancy in his look.

For a moment, I felt a little nervous under the weight of that gaze, so I said, as I got my hand nice and slick, “Tell me if I'm going too fast, or if it's too much.”

He snorted a little laugh as I moved closer to him. “Ichigo, I've done this before, and not all that long ago.”

I looked up at him momentarily, feeling my stomach start to drop, thinking he was about to come out with bad news until he chuckled. “Idiot. I didn't mean I fucked someone else. I just meant that since you wouldn't do me, I had to do myself.”

I swear to god my hands started shaking as I thought about it and I groaned as my cock twitched. “Fuck, you're waiting to mention this until now?”

He threw his head back as I slowly slid one finger into him. “Trust me, I'd have mentioned it sooner if I'd known how you'd react. Actually, you nearly found out not too long ago.” I watched as his eyelids fluttered closed as I buried my first finger in him, and then backed out. He felt so hot and tight around me that I could barely stand the wait, so I listened, hoping he'd say something distracting. “The other day, when you came home early, that's what I was doing in the shower. If I hadn't heard the front door opening, you might have caught me at it.”

 _Distracting in entirely the wrong way._ “What were you thinking about when you did it?” I heard myself asking, somehow unable to keep the question in. I twisted my wrist on my next thrust in, and the moan Renji gave in response made me bite my lip to try to keep my own reactions in check.

“Well,” he began as he opened his big, dark eyes, “I was thinking about being in the shower with one hand on my cock and the other finger-fucking myself hard.” His eyes flew open for a moment as I snarled and thrust another finger inside him to join the first, and his hips rocked up to meet me. “Yeah, Ichigo, just like that.”

“Don't stop talking now,” I said breathlessly, driving into him now, hard enough to make him groan. “Tell me more.”

“Fuck,” he breathed, and I could almost see him trying to bring his thoughts together. He opened his eyes then, and they were wide, dark, and full of mischief. “In my dirty mind, it felt so good that I didn't notice anything else. Didn't notice you come into the bathroom or pulling the shower curtain back, and didn't see you staring at me with those hungry eyes at first. By the time I did, I could _feel_ your gaze on me and see how turned on you were.”

He cried out and cursed as I slid another finger inside him and then crooked them. He shook and arched his back into the feeling, his head thrown back. I chuckled roughly and did it again, rubbing right over that spot, and I felt my stomach tighten as I watched his expression of ecstasy. Renji's eyes opened as I continued to thrust into him, and they looked unfocused and dark but somehow determined. “I was going to give you a show as I finished myself off, but that wasn't what you wanted. You told me how crazy I'd been making you and said that you were going to fuck me so hard that I wouldn't feel the need to touch myself for another week.”

Between his dirty mouth and his tight ass, I wasn't sure how much longer I could make it, but somehow I needed to hear the rest. “So what did you do?”

“You told me to get on the floor on all fours. I didn't want to miss out, so I did, and I arched my back and spread my legs just to tease you. The next thing I knew, you were behind me, biting me and growling, and then I felt you pushing into me.” He licked his lips, then shuddered as I found his spot again and stroked it.

“What happened next?” I asked, urging him on.

He smiled then. “That's around the time I heard you come back, so I had to get out of the shower to make sure it wasn't someone breaking in.”

“You little tease,” I muttered, pulling my hands free, and feeling my cock twitch at Renji's disappointed noise. I fumbled the condom on and somehow managed to lube myself up with shaking hands, feeling like I was a teenager again.

“Yeah, fuck me, Ichigo,” Renji said, low and promising, and I could feel him wrapping his legs around me as I moved closer.

I felt like all the breath was sucked out of me as I eased into him, especially as I listened to the cries he made as I did. I really hadn't expected Renji to be so vocal during all the times I'd thought about (OK, to be honest, _fantasized_ about) this, and I found myself even more surprised that it was a total turn-on. Of course, the fact that I was now buried about as deep in Renji as I could be was keeping me on edge as much as his wanton moans in my ear. After a few moments, he opened his eyes halfway, his expression a little annoyed. “Hey you could move, you know, I'm not going to break.”

“Yeah, I know,” I mumbled, trying to get myself together enough to move without coming immediately, while he chuckled in my ear.

“Been a long time has it?” he whispered, leaning in.

“You know it has,” I responded, leaning away from him a little as I thrust in quickly, getting a groan from him that seemed to run right up my spine.

“It's a shame,” he replied, his voice low and breathless as he leaned in to kiss me. “All this talent gone to waste.”

He was clutching at me then, and I knew I was holding on to him too tightly, but I couldn't stop as I buried my face into his hair, my hips seeming to move by themselves to draw even more delicious noises out of Renji. He was loud, but I wanted to make him louder. I wanted him to feel it, how good he'd always make me feel, how good he'd feel when he finally let go, and one look at the mischief, lust, and pleasure on his face made me want to wind him up so high that it would take him a while to come back down, so somehow I made myself pull back and slow down a bit. I could see the disapproval on Renji's face, but he was still too out of breath to comment on it.

“You look really good like this, Renji,” I said, trying to make it sound slow and liquid, but with the way my heart was trying to beat its way out of my chest, I was probably just lucky he could hear me at all.

“Fuck you,” he replied, still mostly out of breath and slightly flushed, and I swear I just wanted to lick that slightly defiant but mostly turned on expression off his face.

“Oh, you will. I can't wait to see how good you look when you're riding my cock,” I said with a smirk, trying to keep his attention away from how I kept slightly changing the angle of my hips, trying to get just the right sound out of him...

I had to hold him down, finally, when I found the right spot. He was so loud and wild when I did that the feeling just ran right down my spine, and the sight of all that tattooed skin spread out under me, his red shock of hair spread out all around him, and the way he was holding on to me as if I was his last support before he got swept away drew me right into all that wildness. I didn't want to hold on anymore, I wanted to shove us both over the edge.

I leaned in further to lick and bite down on his neck just the way I knew he liked, pulled him close and fucked him just the way his breathless moans were begging me to. Once I was thrusting into him as hard as he liked and we were pressing so close I could feel his cock moving between the two of us, slick and hot and pulsing, I could feel my own control starting to slip away as I heard him cry out again. I'd just looked up to see his face when I felt him come between the two of us. Just the fact that it was him, and that he was coming for me while I was inside him, was almost enough, but when I saw the expression on his face when he came, all heat and pleasure with an edge of bliss, I couldn't help but follow.

Fortunately, I didn’t collapse into a heap afterwards, but my arms were trembling enough to almost give out when I really came back to myself. I realized I wasn't as far gone as Renji as I found something to clean him up with, but once I started looking at him it was hard to stop. Of course, his strong, gorgeous body held my gaze, his fascinating tattoos, and the long red hair thrown out behind him, but what kept my attention were his eyes. Slightly unfocused still, but the heat in them drew me in as I watched him, and I found myself seeing all of the things I'd found in there before, like the kindness when he brought food for my usually empty refrigerator and the care he showed when he held me late at night, when I could pretend I was asleep and not let him know how much I liked it. I found myself remembering all of the other little things he'd done for me, the times he'd reached out to me, included me, helped me when he didn't have to, looked out for me, and the way he'd made my friends love him the first time they met him, and how he made me...well... _I'm going to have to figure out how to do whatever it takes to keep him with me_ , I finally realized, and instead of the thought feeling strange, somehow it seemed like the last puzzle piece had fallen into place.

I smiled as he stirred. “I figured maybe you were out for the night,” I teased, having a look at the bandage on his shoulder. No blood showed through, and when I lifted up a corner to peek, it seemed as if all the stitches were still in place.

“You're not _that_ good,” Renji replied, but I could see him trying not to grin until it turned into a yawn.

I watched him for a moment, until I was satisfied that it seemed like he was going to remain awake for a little while. “How do you feel?” I asked, trying to ease myself into what I actually wanted to say.

He threw his good arm back and stretched his gorgeous tattooed body as he looked at me. “Pretty good,” he finally said, and something about his expression told me that he'd figured out that I had something to talk about and he was waiting for me to come out with it.

Mentally urging myself to just jump into the topic, I began. “I've been meaning to ask you something, Renji.” I almost cringed at the words; did it count if I'd really been seriously thinking about it only for the past few minutes?

“So go on,” he said, and my brief glance at his face showed dark eyes with an expression that was hard to decipher.

“Well, I was wondering if you wanted to move in here with me.” The words tumbled out of my mouth in a rush, and when I finished, I couldn't think of one more thing to add to make it sound less abrupt or disconnected to anything we'd been discussing up until now. I finally chanced a look over at Renji and I could feel something in my chest warm at the look of surprised pleasure he was giving me, at least until a suspicious expression overtook the rest.

“What brought this on, all of a sudden?” he asked, and suddenly I found myself mentally scrambling to come up with an explanation that didn't sound too ridiculous

Finally, I gave a little sigh and tried to just explain how it all came about, while not mentioning the embarrassing epiphany Tatsuki had forced upon me. “Over the past couple of days, I guess, but especially today, I just realized how much I want you with me.” Cringing at how lame that probably sounded, I continued. “You don't have to make up your mind right away or anything, but-”

“All right, I'll move in with you,” Renji's voice interrupted mine, and I couldn't help but stare stupidly at him for a minute while he smirked at me. “If you were going to say that you wanted to keep me here so you could protect me,” he explained, “I was going to have to punch you in the face, but I liked what you had to say a lot more.”

His tone was low and teasing by the time he finished, and I knew I was blushing. “Bastard,” I muttered, more embarrassed than angry.

“Oh, come on, don't be like that,” he replied, pulling me close with his good arm.

I switched off the bedside lamp and settled in beside him. “I was thinking we should take off a couple of days and go somewhere, with what I just earned on this contract, but now I'm thinking we should probably spend that time cleaning out your old place and moving you in here. Which reminds me, Shuu said he wanted a call right away when you got back,” I said, making a move to get out of bed, but Renji pulled me in tighter.

“I'll take care of it in the morning,” he told me. “Trust me, it'll be worse to wake him up in the middle of the night.”

I nodded against his shoulder and threw an arm around his chest, suddenly unafraid to hold onto him, and I felt Renji chuckle under my grip. I realized we still had a lot of details to settle and I had plenty of unfinished business to be taken care of in the next few days, but somehow at that moment I felt light, much lighter than I had in a long time, so I closed my eyes and relaxed, silently thanking everything that had helped us come to this moment as I slipped off into sleep.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> From the case files of Ichigo Kurosaki, P.I. Wrapping up a case where Ichigo and Renji managed to thwart the mob involves a rather formally dressed visit with some old friends, as well as some time at home with no clothes involved at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, All! Please note that this piece was written as sort of a continuation of an earlier piece that I and friends had written during a round-robin, which you can find using these links: [Part 1](http://writerx75.livejournal.com/18541.html) and [Part 2](http://writerx75.livejournal.com/18875.html#cutid1). PLEASE read that one first, since there are parts of this one that won't make sense without reading that one, but I didn't feel right about re-posting that one here, since I didn't write the whole piece myself.

“What the _fuck_?” I tried not to smirk as I sat at the couch in the living room, hearing Renji's aggrieved voice float out from the direction of the bathroom. “Why the fuck is all of this necessary, again?”

“It's a surprise, remember?” I asked, raising my voice slightly to be heard in the next room.

I could hear Renji grunt with disapproval, but he finally replied, “Yeah, all right.” The noises afterwards sounded as if he was continuing to get ready, so I sank back onto the couch, taking a moment to appreciate how comfortable Renji's couch was. The things I'd bought to replace all of the furniture that had gotten broken during the short time I'd dated Grimm were by necessity cheap, since I'd needed so many of them. When Renji'd moved in a month ago, we'd given away most of my stuff, either to our friends who'd showed up to help who wanted it or, for anything remaining, to charity.

I smiled again as I remembered how many of Renji's friends came that day, too, a few of whom I hadn't met before then. Although it had been nice to see all of them, I had the distinct feeling that both I and my place were being interviewed to see if we were worthy. _Unfortunately, I deserve it_ , I remember thinking, as I’d given Renji's blonde friend Izuru the grand tour, as much as was possible with a one-bedroom apartment. I’d been happy to notice that the man had arrived looking worried, but looked happier and almost relieved by the time he left. Shuu had been more of a hard sell, which didn't surprise me, but even he had looked grudgingly approving by the time he left.

“If I hear any complaints, though,” he'd said as he paused at the front door, muttering to me so that Renji couldn't hear, “I'll be over here to kick your ass so fucking fast you'll never forget it.”

By that time I’d just nodded, grateful that he hadn't freaked out on me for real the day after the Infinium case broke, but he'd been way too concerned about Renji then, almost ignoring me in the process.

Wrapping up most of the leftover business related to the Infinium Logistics job hadn't taken as long as I'd expected. Despite our adventures the evening of the boardroom meeting, Renji and I had woken the following day in the later part of the morning. I’d been able to see that his shoulder was stiff, but he’d refused to stay in, saying it would make him feel worse, so I’d dropped him off to visit with Shuu while I’d gone to the station to give my statement. To my surprise, I had only ended up talking to Shinji until early afternoon. He’d said he was going to type up and circulate my statement and that he'd call me back if he needed any more information. Shinji had also mentioned that he'd expect me to send along some of the evidence that Yoruichi’d said she and Ururu had collected on Aizen's money laundering scheme, and a copy of my film of the meeting the previous evening. He had pressed me on the source of the evidence and how I'd managed to film the meeting, but I'd remained silent on that front.

When I’d gotten back home, I'd left Renji lying on the couch upstairs, reading a magazine and looking very relaxed while I’d gone down to the office to see if anything new had arrived. To my surprise and pleasure, when I’d logged on to my computer I’d found an e-mail with the letterhead of Yoruichi's consulting company that had contained a copy of what I'd filmed at the Infinium Logistics boardroom and an invoice for professional services with a rather expensive total.

Figuring it was a good sign, I’d drawn up my final bill for Byakuya, being sure to write up the additional hours I'd worked at the rate we'd agreed on, and to include my many expenses. To be thorough, I’d gone to the shipping center and sent it to him via next-day FedEx, using the same return address as before. For some reason, I hadn’t been too surprised to receive a FedEx myself the next day with a big check in it for the rest of what he owed. I'd had to wait a lot longer for him to fulfill the remainder of what he'd promised, however. After almost a month I'd grown tired of waiting, so one day around noon I’d called the number he'd given me. “Byakuya,” I'd said the moment he'd answered, “how long am I going to have to wait until you pay the rest of what you owe me?”

There was a long silence, and finally a short sigh. “Be at Rafael's at 6PM this Saturday,” he’d replied coolly. “Give your name at the front door, and don't be late.”

I’d closed my phone after I’d realized I'd been hung up on and figured that I'd better plan to show up that night, although I still couldn't say I was convinced that Byakuya would keep his promise, which is why I hadn't told Renji what to expect. Since the spot Byakuya had suggested meeting at was one of the most expensive and exclusive restaurants in town, however, it had been necessary to get the two of us something different to wear.

I heard Renji emerging then and as I turned to look at him, I got the distinct sensation that suddenly there was less air in the room. I couldn't quite get my breath as I looked at his slightly sullen face, framed by his long red hair, which was down for once, and as my gaze slid down the tight-fitting short black jacket and pants he wore, the problem just got worse. When he turned slightly and I could see the full effect, I felt a bit lightheaded and thanked whatever deity had allowed there to still be a place where you could rent a tuxedo jacket with tails. I couldn't tell if I was pale from lack of oxygen or blushing by the time I noted that his starched white shirt and black tie were perfectly in order, but I did notice that Renji was smirking by the time I met his eye again.

“So, what do you think?” he asked, the sly tone in his voice saying that he thought he might know the answer.

“I think we'd better get out of here before we're late,” I replied, walking past Renji and towards the front door, but the both of us paused at the mirror we'd put by the door. Apparently Renji appreciated how the same suit looked on me, if the way he looked at my reflection was any indication. “If we stay here any longer,” I admitted, “I think I'm going to have to take you to the bedroom and see how that all looks while it's coming off.”

I could hear his rich chuckle behind me as I turned to go out. To my surprise, we actually managed to make it to the restaurant with all of our clothes intact, but once we got there I kept expecting to be told that they'd never heard of me until the moment that the immaculately dressed man at the front desk nodded. “Certainly, Mr. Kurosaki. The rest of your party hasn't arrived yet, but please follow me and I'll make you comfortable until they do.”

I didn't look back at Renji yet, mostly because I wanted to wait to explain any more until we were alone, and instead busied myself with looking our surroundings over. The hallway we traveled through was done in dark paneled wood with obviously hand painted inlays every foot or so, mainly depicting people dressed in the style of eras gone by, with long gowns and piled up wigs or suits that were in fashion hundreds of years ago. I wondered if they were just for show or if they were supposed to be someone's ancestors, until we began walking by the large dining room. It was a big open room flanked by floor-to-ceiling windows on two sides, the other walls being wood paneling inlaid with a rich red fabric. The carpet was a dark red as well, and the subtle lighting provided by the setting sun and the dim glow from the crystal chandeliers overhead seemed mostly there to highlight the patrons, all of whom seemed dressed in the very best of what they had, many of the women wearing sparkling clothing or jewels, probably to take advantage of the light.

We passed by the main room by and continued down the paneled hall, the dark red carpet muffling our footsteps. Waiters and waitresses walked past us, both men and women wearing the same short black jacket, starched white shirt, black tie, and pants, until we finally reached a dark wood door that our guide produced a key to open. He showed us into a room that seemed dominated by the sunset as it shone through two walls of windows, the pinks, purples and reds casting the city around into silhouette. The other two walls of the room had been fitted with built-in benches that were upholstered in crimson and heaped with pillows in the same shade. In the center of the room was a table covered by a heavy-looking white cloth and with four chairs pulled up around it.

When the man who'd guided us there asked if we'd like a drink while we waited, I ordered a beer since I wasn't sure how long we'd be here or what to expect, and Renji followed my lead. Once we were alone in the room, he turned to me with a look of curiosity shot through with annoyance. “All right, Ichigo, I've been patient and I've let you dress me up like some kind of idiot and drag me out here with no idea of why. Time to tell me why we're here.”

“You don't look like an idiot,” I said, turning towards the windows as I tried to avoid the subject. The view from up there really was spectacular, but I should have expected that, since it was at the top of one of the taller buildings in town. You could see the entirety of Karakura, even out to where it bordered Rukongai and to the water beyond. I could feel Renji's hands on my shoulders then, and I allowed myself to be turned towards him again.

“OK, so maybe I don't, but I sure feel like one,” he said, exasperated now. “What's going on, Ichigo? Why are we here? Who's joining us?”

I sighed, realizing that it was probably past time to tell him, even if it would lead to disappointment if no one ever showed up. “Well, I'm sure you remember that job that you got dragged into, right? I know you're probably still pissed off that I couldn't tell you everything about it, and I'm amazed that you were willing to go along with my story about what had happened that night.”

Renji shrugged, seeming to calm down now that I was talking. “It made sense that we should both say the same thing, and I've never really been a big fan of the cops, anyway. Growing up the way I did, they ended up harassing me and my friends for no real reason other than the fact that sometimes we didn't have anywhere else to go than the streets.”

I nodded to show I understood before I continued. “Anyway, I appreciate it, really I do. What I couldn't explain up until now is that I didn't really want to take the job, but there was a reason that I felt I had to. With any luck, you'll find out why tonight.”

“Ichigo,” Renji replied as he put his hand under my chin to force me to look into his eyes, his expression more curious than annoyed now, “come on, you can tell me.”

It was at that moment that the door began to open, and we both turned in that direction. I was expecting someone to have arrived with our drinks, but I felt something in my chest relax as I spotted Kenpachi instead, grinning from ear to ear. “Are we interrupting?” he asked, coming into the room. “We can come back later.”

I rolled my eyes in response. “Asshole,” I muttered under my breath, but I wasn't paying much attention to Kenpachi. Instead, my eyes were fixed on Renji, and something clutched in my chest at his expression a moment later. I looked back to the door to see that Rukia had appeared from behind Kenpachi, wearing a strapless dark purple dress with a diamond necklace so delicate that all it appeared to be was a scattering of sparkles suspended under her throat, like some random water droplets. The look on her face was incredulous, and she let out a happy wordless cry before she ran forward, calling out Renji's name.

Drawing to one side as the two came together and hugged, I watched as Renji broke out into a wide smile and laughed. I moved to sit on one of the benches on the opposite side of the room, something in my stomach feeling unpleasantly tight as I watched the two of them together. After watching them for a little while I'd looked down at the carpet, feeling as if I was peeping in on them since it was obvious they'd forgotten anyone else was there.

“Relax, Romeo. I can tell you for a fact that he's not going home with her.” I snapped my head around to scowl at the source of the amused voice that had cut in on my reflections to see Kenpachi leaning against the wall near the door.

“You sure are a nosy bastard, aren't you?” I replied, more sullenly than anything.

He laughed in response. “You know how it is: noticing things is what keeps me alive. So, when do you want to spar again?”

I rolled my eyes and pulled a business card and a pen out of my pocket, having learned through years of experience never to go anywhere without either of those items. “Here,” I said, handing them to him. “Give me your number and I'll talk to Tatsuki about sparring with you. If I talk her into it, though, I'd advise you not to injure her 'accidentally,’ because she'd likely put _you_ in the hospital.”

His eyebrows raised, Kenpachi quickly wrote a number on the card and handed it back to me, his wild-looking grin suddenly putting in an appearance. “A woman who could put me in the hospital, eh? I'll have to meet her for sure.”

I couldn't help laughing just a little bit at the strange, faraway look and light in his eyes. “So, have you talked to Yoruichi since that night?”

He looked a little depressed when I said her name and replied, “No, but she does have my number.” After that, he stared out the windows at the darkening sky, obviously thinking about something. I rolled my eyes, figuring I probably knew what, having recognized that thousand-yard stare on the faces of other men who'd met Yoruichi before.

I looked out in the same direction, but eventually found myself gazing at the reflection of Renji and Rukia in the window instead. Gradually, I turned my head to peek at them, sitting on the bench along the opposite wall and talking animatedly. I winced a little at the twist I felt in my gut as I noticed how close they sat together. I turned away quickly as I realized that I hadn't often felt this sort of jealousy before with lovers. Most of the time, I realized, I hadn't let myself get involved enough to bring up feelings like this, or if I had started to get attached, I usually used the first sign of something like this as a good reason to move on. This time, I knew I was just going to have to deal with it or get over it somehow, so I figured maybe I should distract myself instead.

“Hey,” I said, turning back to Kenpachi, “you know, when I thought about it, it seemed weird that you'd work for someone like Byakuya. How did you ever end up with that job, anyway?”

He looked over at me consideringly for a moment and then shrugged. “I did some freelance security work when I got out of the service and eventually heard about the position through some of the other guys I worked with. Everyone said he was really picky about his employees, but I figured I might as well interview because I really needed something with some steady pay. Strangely enough, it worked out.”

I glanced sideways at him skeptically. “I just found it hard to believe, after I met you, that you'd actually work for Byakuya. I mean, he seems like he'd be a real jerk to be employed by.”

“Yeah, I wasn't sure if it was going to work out at first,” he admitted, grinning again. “I took one look at him and figured I'd probably be fired before the first week, but one thing I found out pretty quickly is that as long as you can do your job well, he'll leave you to do it however you want. Well, except he's pretty sensitive about not getting bad press for the company, stuff like that.”

“How so?” I asked, not sure how all of that related.

“Well, when he found out I was bouncing at a club on the weekends, he told me to quit.”

“Bouncing? Did you need extra money or something?” I was puzzled until he answered.

“Sometimes there's not all that much physical to do at Kuchiki's, so it gets too boring. I think he was worried I might get arrested, though, so he wanted me to quit. It's all right, though, I figured out a better way to get more practice in,” he replied, grinning widely again. “Cage fighting.”

I was about to ask him when his next one was when I heard a different voice close by. “Well, I never thought I'd see you again.”

I turned in surprise to see Rukia standing near my elbow, with Renji not far behind her and smiling a slightly goofy grin. I tried to ignore the mix of feelings that brought up in my chest and answered coolly, with a raised eyebrow, “I got the impression at the time that you were happy to get rid of me as soon as possible.”

She made an annoyed noise and surprised me by leaning over to hit me in the back of the head, which I dodged. Rukia gave me a look of shock that I couldn't help but laugh at. “Yeah, I should have warned you that he's really fast,” Renji said, chuckling even as she elbowed him.

“Don't worry,” she replied, looking at both of us in turn. “I'll get him before long. So,” she continued, looking over at me with some curiosity and smugness, “I see you took advantage of having Renji as your client.”

Chuckling myself now, I said suggestively, “It wasn't all my idea,” and gazed over at Renji.

Renji smirked back at me, but whatever he might have been about to say was interrupted by Rukia's voice. “Yeah, he's always liked guys like you,” she replied with a nod.

“Rukia,” he muttered, looking away, and I couldn't help but smile, thinking that he looked like he was squirming the same way I had been during dinner with my family a couple of weeks back. No one had given me a break that day, due to how long I'd made them all wait to meet Renji, and I had been certain my face was going to be permanently red by the time we left due to the sheer volume of embarrassing stories.

“What?” she asked in an innocent tone of voice while sporting a wicked grin. “All the guys I've ever seen you date have been long, lean, really cute, and had smart mouths, just like this one,” she said, elbowing me.

“Yeah, well I must have a thing for people with smart mouths in general, then,” Renji replied, glowering at Rukia, who smiled in return.

“I had to try really hard to keep up with you,” she explained, and then launched into a story about when they were going to school together and Renji's wisecracking had gotten them into trouble. Renji countered with a story about Rukia getting the two of them into hot water at school because of something she'd done, and then it seemed like the gloves were off. I ended up getting somehow involved in the stories flying back and forth, and eventually it came to me that I was being included in all of the good-natured teasing and tale-telling as if I always had been one of the gang. Somehow, as the stories rolled on, I realized in the middle of talking about what had happened during the Infinium case that Rukia had somehow induced Renji and I to tell her about it, even though I'd specifically intended not to. Before I could act on that recollection, however, a chill seemed to fall over the room as Byakuya walked in.

He looked at the two of us coldly and said, “Gentlemen,” then looked towards the door, his meaning perfectly clear to me. _Get the hell out._

I was half-standing when Rukia, who'd been watching the unspoken exchange between the two of us, spoke up. “Thank you, honey!” she said in an excited voice, rushing forward to hug Byakuya. “What a lovely surprise, to invite these two to dinner to thank them for all they've done for us. And thanks for not telling me that Renji was going to be here. It really was the nicest surprise you've ever given me.”

She stood on tiptoe to kiss his cheek and Byakuya leaned down to receive it, looking a bit stunned, as if he'd been completely circumvented and didn't know what to do about it. With a sigh, he smiled a little tightly and led the way to the table. Renji was frozen, sizing Byakuya up and scowling at him, so I elbowed him to snap him out of it and followed the other couple to the table. Rukia frowned once we got there, remarking, “There's not enough chairs.” She looked pointedly at Kenpachi, who'd moved to sit on the bench near the door and had been remarkably quiet for some time, apparently just watching the interplay between all of us and appearing to enjoy Rukia's move that had silenced his boss.

“I'm fine here,” he said, settling back with a big grin on his face. “I ate earlier, anyway.”

Dinner was a bit stiff and odd at first, but once the food arrived, both Rukia and Renji seemed to relax back into the mood they'd been in before. I found it hard not to follow suit, but I hung back a little this time, both to let the two of them catch up and to study Byakuya. Fortunately, he didn't seem to be paying too much attention to me, which was good because I'd wanted to see what I could figure out about the relationship between him and Rukia. I kind of figured that now Renji had moved in, I needed to know what the likelihood was of having Rukia showing up on our doorstep late one night because Byakuya had threatened her or something.

From what I could see by watching the two of them, however, he seemed quite taken with her. He watched her carefully for most of the meal, listening to what she said even though he didn't often have anything to add, and his eyes seemed to be full of concern and care, not crazy possessiveness as I'd worried might be the case. By the end of the evening I was willing to mentally concede that maybe Rukia would be all right instead of being in danger of being murdered in her sleep, which I think had still been somewhere in my mind due to the fact that when I'd initially met her, I'd half expected her to be dead.

When it became time to go, I drew to the side as she and Renji said their goodbyes. Their hug was much shorter this time, obviously because Rukia seemed aware that Byakuya was watching, but they talked quietly for a little while before they separated. As they did, I looked over in annoyance as I felt an elbow in my ribs. “Hey, don't forget to talk to your teacher,” he said. “If you do, I know where you work and I'll come bother you until you fight me yourself again.”

I couldn't help but smile at that. “Yeah, all right, I'll talk to her.”

A moment later, I was rubbing my side and turning in the other direction. “All right you-” I began, expecting to see Renji elbowing me, but it was Rukia.

“You know, we've got a lot to thank you for,” she said, putting out her hand.

I shook it, saying, “I didn't do it for you, or for Byakuya.”

She smiled widely then and it was full of mirth and mischief. “Yeah, I figured that!” and glanced over her shoulder at Renji, who was looking at the two of us but keeping a little distance. I cursed under my breath as I felt my cheeks heating up, but as I looked back at her again her expression became serious. “Really, that's even more of a reason to thank you. And, I have something else I need to ask you. Please, take care of him. It won't always be like this, especially since you really saved our company so there's not going to be much Byakuya can say in the future when I want to see you, but it won't be like before. I have someone to take care of me now, and I want to make sure he does, too. Please say you'll do it.”

I swallowed against a suddenly dry throat as I looked at her wide, solemn eyes. “I will,” I somehow managed to croak out. “You look out for yourself, though. Sometimes these rich people can be cold, scary bastards if something goes wrong.”

She smiled serenely and leaned in to speak quietly. “I'm not worried, Ichigo. When Byakuya presented his demands to me about not seeing my old friends if I wanted to marry him, I presented one of my own, to which he agreed. I am a full partner in the company, the equal of any other member of the family. We're not only married, but we're business partners now, and it's not something that can be revoked in case of divorce. So, I'm not worried about it.”

I took a step back and gave her another look as her estimation went up in my eyes. _No wonder Renji likes her_ , I thought. I made sure to thank Byakuya as we left to the sound of Rukia waving and saying, “Bye! See you two later!” Renji had grabbed my hand before we'd made it back to the elevator, and was kissing me the moment the doors closed.

“Rukia was right,” he said, pulling back a few moments before the doors opened. “That was one of the nicest surprises you've ever given me.” He really does know how to show his appreciation, too.  
_____________________________________________________________

“I'm not coming out,” I said, trying not to look at my own sullen face in the mirror.

“Come on, Ichigo, you can't stay in the bathroom all night,” Renji tried to reason with me, his face beside mine in the mirror, looking sympathetic. “It's too small to sleep in here.”

“I can't believe you actually agreed to it,” I replied in a tone that was _not_ a whine.

Seriously, I had no idea how Yoruichi had even gotten Renji's cell number, but then again, maybe I shouldn't have been too surprised she had. What I'd _really_ been surprised to find out was that he'd apparently talked to her a couple of days ago, agreed to what she'd asked, and told her to come by the following Sunday. On the Sunday evenings that Renji had off, unless we had any other plans, we'd make it an early night in to catch up on the time we usually missed together during the week since we worked such different schedules. He'd forgotten to tell me about his conversation with her until earlier that day while we'd been out shopping. At the time I'd been irritated, but I think I chose not to really consider it because I'd been distracted, and, well, probably because I hadn't wanted to. But the thought had come back to me like a bucket of cold water over my head by the time I'd been back at home in bed early that evening, mostly undressed and with Renji hovering over me, a sly grin on his face. Before I knew it, I'd scrambled away and slammed the bathroom door behind me.

“Come on, Ichigo,” he responded. “When a beautiful woman asks something like that, especially since she said you'd already agreed to it, I wasn't going to say no.”

He turned me around then, his hands gentle yet insistent against me, and I could feel my stomach knot in hunger for him as he fixed me with a look from eyes that were already dark. “I thought it was pretty hot, actually.”

I grumbled as he took me in his arms and stepped back a little, pushing me against the wall. “You would, you pervert.”

He leaned in to chuckle against my ear, and the low, soft sound seemed to send a shock down my spine. “Come on, Ichigo, I know you're only into guys, but I'm sure even you can't deny that she's pretty fucking hot, and the idea that she wants to see the two of us fucking, well, that's a turn on all by itself, I think.”

I know I started blushing the moment he talked about Yoruichi, and unfortunately he didn't miss it. “So, what's that for?” he asked. “I know she said she was an old friend of yours. Was it more than that?”

Renji was grinning now as he looked down at me, and I wanted to be angry, but I couldn't manage it as he ground our lower bodies together. “Fuck,” I swore breathlessly, “no, that's not it but-”

I clamped my lips shut before anything more incriminating could come out, but he kissed me again, and before I knew it I'd opened my damned mouth again because of his tongue. “What is it, then?” he asked a moment later as he pulled his head back to look into my eyes.

I tried to look away, but he caught my chin and forced me to gaze into his eyes. I cursed again, knowing he wouldn't let me out of this until I’d spilled my guts, so I took a breath and just forced myself to say it. “When I was a kid I...dreamed about her a couple of times.”

His mouth dropped open and then quickly changed to a grin. “Ichigo! You never told me that you were interested in girls before!”

“I wasn't, idiot,” I snapped, trying not to return his grin and stay mad, but it was difficult since he'd grabbed a hold of my ass with one hand and was still moving his hips against mine. I could feel he was hard through the thin cloth of the underwear we were both still wearing, and hell if I wasn't quickly following him there. “It's just that...fuck, I don't know. I was young and horny and she was probably one of the first adults I'd seen naked. Hell, I think she'd walk around naked all the time if she could manage it.”

I was trying to get away from the subject, but Renji was never so easily swayed when the topic was sex. “So, what did you dream about her?” he asked me, grinding his hips against mine again, the sensation taking away my breath momentarily.

“Fuck! I don't want to tell you,” I replied, still annoyed with him, and with myself for the flush I felt heating up my face.

“Come on, Ichigo.” His voice was all low honeyed tones as he dipped his head to murmur into my ear. “I'm not going to tell anyone.”

I closed my eyes then, more in disbelief that I was going to tell my...boyfriend one of my wet dreams from when I was a horny teenager than anything else. “It was almost always the same dream. I was staying the night at Urahara's shop for some reason, I don't know why, maybe my dad was out of town or something. I woke up in the middle of the night because I heard a noise. What it turned out to be was Yoruichi slipping into my room. She was naked, of course, and I remember thinking that it seemed wrong, yet also knowing that we'd agreed on it earlier. She didn't say anything, just stripped me naked and started sucking my cock. It felt so intense that I was hard in seconds, and she just laughed and straddled me. She used me like a sex toy then. She rode me so hard it almost hurt, but it felt incredibly good, too, and I wanted to come but I couldn't. She just kept fucking me. She came a couple of times and just kept going, and it got to the point where I thought I was going to die if I couldn't get off and that was when she laughed at me again and told me to come in this low, quiet voice. I came so fucking hard that I thought my head was going to blow off.”

“And you say _I'm_ a pervert,” Renji replied, and I could feel from the way his cock twitched against mine and how dark his eyes were when I opened my own that it seemed he'd liked the story. “Your subconscious is way further down that road than I am.”

“Yeah, well, they were just dreams,” I muttered, shifting my glance away from his piercing one, “and the only ones I ever had about a girl.”

He chuckled then. “Yeah, but it could be useful in this case,” Renji murmured, almost to himself. When I raised an eyebrow, looking back at him, he grinned and continued. “Since you were kind enough to tell me that sexy dream of yours, I might as well tell you this. It was something that actually happened, though.”

I looked up to see a sly expression and lifted eyebrow. “Well, go on,” I replied, curious now if still a little annoyed.

“It was in high school. I'd known Rukia for years by then, and I'd had a crush on her for a long time. I made it pretty clear to her how I felt, but she always seemed to be able to keep me at arm’s length when it came to actually going out or anything. Somehow, she figured out how to avoid the subject whenever it was in danger of coming up, and so nothing ever went anywhere between us. It was around that time that I met Shuu.”

He looked over at me then to see that I was listening with interest, and turned away as I gave him a smirk, a little embarrassed look on his face. “Yeah, well, I can see that you've figured out where this is going. He'd transferred into our school because he'd come to town to live with an uncle of his, and from the first class we had together he was aggressive as hell. I'd never really considered dating a guy up until then, but he wore me down after a little while, and since it was pretty obvious Rukia wasn't interested, I guess I didn't have any trouble taking Shuu seriously.”

He paused for a moment and looked away, obviously remembering, but now I was the one who wanted to hear more. To encourage him to continue I slid my hands down his back, where they'd ended up when he'd pushed me up against the wall, to rest them on his ass, then pulled him in to grind the two of us together. Renji sucked in a surprised breath, and then looked down at me with a wicked smile. “Oh, you like this story, do you? Anyway, it got to the point pretty quickly where we were spending a lot of time together after school. We'd meet up right as classes ended and go to the same place. Along the way home for both of us, there was an apartment building that was supposed to be demolished to make way for some new buildings, but apparently the plan was being contested in court or something, because the whole thing was just closed up and empty.”

Renji dipped his head lower as he continued, murmuring the story into my ear. “Anyway, we first started out just exploring the building, but after a little while we came there every day to explore each other. No one else seemed to be around, so it was perfect. But one day, I remember looking out the window and spotting Rukia outside. She looked a little nervous, as if she was worried about being seen. At one point, she quickly looked up in my general direction and it hit me why she was there. Shuu had been somewhere else at the time and hadn't noticed her, but around the time we started fooling around I heard something that could just have been the building settling, but I knew it wasn't. That whole afternoon is imprinted in my memory like it was yesterday. Just the idea that someone I wanted who didn't seem to want me _still_ apparently found me hot enough to want to come and watch me have sex was such a turn on that I couldn't stop wanting more. We fucked for hours that day, until neither one of us could anymore, but I still wanted to keep going, even though it was hard to move by then.”

He was moving his hips slowly against mine, teasing me with his hard cock, making me gasp and shudder. “Just think about it, Ichigo. Maybe it was just in your subconscious, but somewhere you did want her. And now she's come to watch you fuck because she finds the idea a turn-on, enough so that she requested it as part of her payment for that job that nearly got the both of us killed. She could easily have asked for more money, or for some other favor that would have gained her something material, but that's not what she chose. She wanted to see your hot naked body, hear you moan, and see you come. Kind of a turn on, isn't it?”

I was making little noises by then, arching my back off the wall and clutching onto his ass as I ground my cock against his. Fuck if he wasn't driving me crazy, and he was right, but there was something I just couldn't get my mind around. “I bet she didn't get to see you...” I trailed off, suddenly too embarrassed to finish my thought, but Renji had managed to hear it anyway.

“What, you think Rukia didn't get to see me take any cock?” He chuckled then, looking at me fondly. “You really are an idiot sometimes. If you think that's the kind of relationship Shuu and I had, you're dead wrong.”

I looked up at him in surprise as he continued to smile down at me. “Yeah, Shuu really liked to top, but that's not to say that's all she saw that day. The way it went, she ended up seeing practically everything we'd ever done together.”

Fuck if I didn't _moan_ then as I ground against him again, because now the picture of Renji writhing under Shuu was stuck in my head. “Don't tell me any more,” I muttered, feeling my cheeks get hot.

“Why? Are you jealous?” he asked, his voice still a low, sexy murmur.

“No,” I hissed back, my face still burning. “I just need to think about what to do, and having the image of you and Shuu as high schoolers rolling around together is really distracting.”

He laughed then and shrugged. “Well, you did tell her you'd do it if I said yes, so I think we have to go back to bed and get it on at some point. If you have a problem showing her how much you like to take cock, you should know by now that I don't mind being on the receiving end,” he continued, a sly smile forming on his face. “If you feel too nervous about the whole thing, though, maybe we should try to do a scene.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, trying to calm my heart rate down at the idea of fucking in front of Yoruichi and at the same time wondering what the hell he was talking about.

“You know, role playing. Like the worldly doctor who seduces the naive patient. Or maybe the horny student who puts the moves on the gorgeous teacher.” He was really grinning now, and I tried not to return it.

I shook my head in disbelief. “Are you serious? That sounds like some bad porno or something.” Still, I could feel heat settling into my groin now, the idea of hitting on my hot teacher Renji now playing out in my mind.

“Or, maybe something else?” he said, his voice getting low and seductive again. “Maybe you're more into the idea of being back in high school again with one of the other students who has a crush on you confessing, and then playing out what happens afterwards?”

He chuckled as he felt my cock twitch against him, and I could feel my blush flaring again, but I couldn't deny that the idea turned me on. Hell, anything that could have made high school something other than the experience of daily humiliation and fist fights that it had been would have been welcome. I'd often fantasized about being with some of my classmates and even a few of my teachers, but none of the other guys in my circle had been gay. During my senior year I'd fooled around with a couple of different guys in school, but we really hadn't hit it off, so it didn't go anywhere other than to give me the beginning of a bad reputation. But the idea of having a regular lover during those years to experiment with, both of us young and horny... “Fuck, Renji,” I finally muttered, pushing my hot face against his neck, visions of the two of us much younger and hiding out in supply closets, the nearest bathroom, or each other's bedrooms while we were supposed to be studying and making out instead filled my mind.

“Oh, you like that one, do you?” he almost growled in my ear. “OK, let's play it out like this. I've had a crush on you for a long time, but I never knew how to tell you. I needed someplace to stay for a week while my parents are out of town, and you invited me over. We're going to be alone all night because your parents work the night shift. Sound good?”

“Yeah,” I replied, my voice low and muffled with my mouth up against his neck, my nervousness mixed with excitement now as I thought about the scenario Renji had come up with. I didn't know why I was more turned on than intimidated about the idea of having sex in front of Yoruichi now, but for some reason now I felt like I just wanted to get back into the bedroom with Renji.

Once we got there, I noticed for the first time that things had been switched around a little. My family had given me an old fashioned painted screen at the time I'd moved into my new office/apartment. I wasn't sure why at the time, but it had come in handy a while later when there was a water leak from the place upstairs and the landlord never sent anyone to fix the big stain that was now down my back bedroom wall. I now noticed that the screen had been moved out from the wall a bit, enough so a chair could be placed behind it. I looked up at Renji with a raised eyebrow and he half shrugged with a little grin, then his expression changed.

“Ichigo, thanks a lot for letting me stay here this week. It really is a big favor.” He licked his lips, looking sort of nervous, and I felt the heat in me flare up as I looked at the intensity and uncertainty in his eyes.

“Really, it's no big deal. I think my parents like it, since I'm alone here most nights,” I replied, trying to sound casual but running my eyes over his body before meeting his gaze again. It seemed like he hadn't noticed, that he was thinking about something that was distracting him.

“I hope you don't mind sleeping in my bed,” I continued, trying to look nonchalant and not grin wickedly. “We don't have a lot of guests, so we're using that room for storage these days.”

Renji's eyes opened wide for a moment and he bit his lip. I could feel my guts heat up as I watched him, and I found myself feeling like I really was a teenager again, young and horny, standing next to my shy, hot classmate and hoping that I hadn't mistaken the signs that he seemed to like me. “No, no, I don't mind,” he finally replied, his voice rushed and breathy. He paused for a long time, and I nodded, thinking that was probably all he wanted to say and began to head for the bed, but he grabbed my arm and stopped me.

I looked up at him with a questioning glance, but he turned his face to the side with an embarrassed look, trying not to meet my eyes. “I just...there's something I should probably tell you first, though.”

 _Yes! Tell me!_ my brain screamed. “What is it?” I asked, trying to make my voice low and calm and trying to ignore the way it shook.

“Well, I really...um, Ichigo, I really...” he said, obviously having trouble saying what he wanted to, and before I knew it, he'd pushed me up against the wall with his lips on mine.

For a moment, I really was surprised, not having expected him to move so fast in this situation, but when I caught his intense, almost pained expression before I closed my eyes, my arms moved up and around him automatically. Just before I snapped out of it enough to respond to his kiss, however, Renji pulled back, looking at me with sadness and worry. “I'm sorry,” he said, “I shouldn't have done that. I'll find somewhere else to stay tomorrow.”

I nearly growled at that, pulling him closer since I now had my arms wrapped around him. “No, you won't. You'll be staying right here, in my bed.” I felt a rush of heat flash through me at the surprise and happiness in his eyes and then continued, “I'm glad you did that. I like you, Renji.”

I could feel my cheeks flushing as my tongue wanted to continue and say much more than that, and it only got worse a moment later as he smiled at me and held me closer. “I'm glad, too. I really like you, Ichigo. A lot.” I could feel his wild heartbeat as he pressed his chest against mine, and I could feel my own in my throat as I listened to his soft words in my ear. My heartbeat sounded even faster than his.

We kissed again, and it was filled with so much hunger and longing that it nearly burnt me, but I couldn't turn away because I only wanted more. He was tentatively tracing my lips with his tongue when I pushed mine out to lick his and then slide into his mouth. The jolt I felt as I tasted him made me grunt and I licked him with teasingly quick movements along the inside of his lips and the underside of his tongue, making him moan into my mouth. He clutched me as he sucked on my tongue a moment later, and another wave of heat ran through me as I moved one hand down to his ass and ground the two of us together.

Panting, our mouths broke apart as he looked at me with wide, dark eyes. “How about we lay down on the bed?” I asked, unable to help feeling a little dirty as I said it, watching Renji look at me in surprise. “We don't have to do anything you don't want to,” I added, and Renji looked away quickly, wearing an embarrassed expression.

“I want to,” he said, looking back at me a second later, determination now on his face. “I know you've dated some other guys-”

“Not for a while,” I broke in, looking up at him sincerely, wanting him to know that this wasn't just sex to me, and that I wasn't seeing anyone else.

“I know,” he replied with a smile that made my heart jump around strangely. “I just wanted to say that...well...that I haven't done anything like this before, because you probably have.”

My blood seemed to surge with visions of being the first other person to make Renji come, the first one to touch him in ways to make him moan, the first one to lay panting along with him after we'd both come. “Don't worry,” I said, and it sounded more like a growl as I pulled him down to the bed with me, “I'll be more than glad to teach you anything I know.”

We lay side by side as we kissed some more, and I could feel his hands trailing all over me, strong and warm, yet tentative, as if he wasn't sure he should be doing this. I couldn't help running one hand down his strong back, squeezing his ass like I'd wanted to for so long and feeling up his muscular thighs. My other hand was against his chest, kneading the tight strength there and wanting to shift and move lower, but not wanting to freak him out.

After a little while of wondering how far might be too far, I finally pulled back to breathe and shifted my weight slightly, pushing him over on the bed. I felt another rush of heat when he didn't appear scared but instead gave me a seductive look, opening his legs so I could settle between them. The next breath I took was unsteady and my hands shook as I trailed them up his thighs, still not coming too close to his cock. That didn't stop me from looking at it, though, and my eyes lingered on the sight of his dick, fully hard and poking out of the top of his underwear, already wet. I licked my lips as I looked at him, wanting his cock in my mouth, and the groan he gave made my own cock twitch.

“You look so hot,” I said, watching his eyes until I had to close my own as I kissed him again, and then I moved my lips away from his to trail along his jawline and down his neck. I knew I'd worshipped his body with my mouth so many times before, but I was so deep into what we'd started that it felt like that shaky first time again. I moved slowly enough to give him time to change his mind, and so that if he didn't, it would take him from wanting me to get him off to needing it so badly he might feel like he'd die without it. The moans and groans he made as I licked his neck and bit and sucked at his nipples got me so hard that I couldn't help grinding myself against his thigh as I moved lower, finally following one of those tattooed fangs along his stomach to hover over the head of his wet and twitching cock. He moaned as I blew a breath of air across it, mumbling something that sounded like obscenities mixed with pleading.

“What do you want, Renji?” I asked, grinning now and feeling my own cock twitch as he opened his eyes, his expression slightly bewildered and completely lustful, his lips wet and open as he panted.

“I want...” he turned away a little, his expression embarrassed, but when he faced me again, all I saw was the heat. “Touch my dick, Ichigo.”

I raised my eyebrow as my grin grew. “How do you want me to touch you?” I asked, leaning in to murmur into his ear.

The way his breath hitched sent another rush of heat through me. “Please,” he said, more hesitantly this time, “can you suck me?”

Moving back away from him, I watched the disappointment on his face grow, until he realized I'd only done it so that I could finally strip him naked. I just looked at his cock for a moment then, watching it jump under my gaze, and smiling when I looked back at him. “You're so big,” I said, my smile definitely wicked by then. “I don't think I can fit your dick in my mouth.” He looked disappointed again for a moment until I continued, “I guess I'll just have to see how much of you I can take.”

I lowered myself over him then, first lapping away the little pool of pre-come Renji had spilled on himself, tasting the salt of his arousal and drinking in his shudders and cries. Then, I wrapped my hand around the base of his cock and brought the head of it to my lips, licking the slit and tracing all around the edge with my tongue before going down further, taking as much of his cock into my mouth as I could. The wanton moan he gave just egged me on and I pulled back just to move forward again to try to take more. I closed my hand around the base of his cock and followed the pace I set with my mouth, continuing to stroke him even when I moved all the way back to tease him and lick only at the head of his cock.

After a short while I heard him say, his voice strained, “Ichigo, I'm-” and I pulled all the way back, still stroking him and watching his face as he came, the heat and abandon in his closed eyes and bared neck almost too much for me. I moved closer again, kissing his neck lightly where the tattoos ran down it and where the artery throbbed an almost impossibly fast beat. My sticky hand had come to rest in the middle of the still-warm come on his chest, but somehow I didn't mind. I found my fingers moving restlessly, wanting to grab him and move him up on all fours, but I found myself distracted when I felt his hand grab that wrist.

I'd expected that he'd done it because he was too sensitive now that he'd come, but it seemed that wasn't the reason. I watched, almost frozen, as he took my sticky hand and moved it to his mouth, carefully licking my palm and sucking each finger in turn until my hand was clean. He let go of my hand then, looking smug and satisfied while I, on the other hand, was a complete mess fit only for panting and staring. “Stop that,” I finally managed, “or you'll get more than you bargained for today.”

“What?” he asked, stretching out on the bed and displaying his hot body to even better advantage, “more than you fucking me? Because that's what I want.”

I had to suck in a breath before I replied. “You've got a dirty mouth, don't you?”

“Yeah, and you seem to like it,” he said as my whole body jolted when he put his hand over my still-clothed cock. I stayed completely still for a moment, trying not to thrust against him because I was afraid I would come if I did. I somehow managed to keep from moving too much as he eased my underwear off and down my thighs.

I shuddered again as he began stroking me slowly. “Are you sure about this, Renji?” I asked, not only to play my role but also because the vision of Yoruichi sitting behind that screen came to mind. “I mean, we can wait if you want to.”

He grabbed my cock with more force then, making me moan as he stroked me harder. “No, I don't want to. I've been thinking about this for a while, Ichigo. Been getting off finger-fucking myself while wishing it was your cock inside me. I've been waking up with wet shorts after dreaming about you bending me over my desk at school and fucking me until-”

“Renji, stop,” I broke in, panting, as I gently took his hand off my cock. I just breathed for a moment as he looked at me, worried, as if he'd said something he shouldn't. “You're going to make me come if you keep doing all of that. If you want me to fuck you, get on your hands and knees,” I said, watching his expression change until he was sporting a sly grin.

He moved quickly, looking seductively over his shoulder at me as he spread his legs a little wider and arched his back. I couldn't help but moan as I ran a hand over his ass, squeezing one perfect cheek as I leaned in closer. “That's it, show me what you've got,” I mostly whispered as I kissed one of those tempting curves, then bit down gently before I moved my mouth not far away to the tiny pucker of his entrance, the heat in my guts roaring higher as he shivered when I breathed on him.

I grunted against him as I heard his surprised cry, and then chuckled back in my throat as he pushed his ass back at me a moment later. I used one hand to hold his hips in place as I teased him, my tongue tracing every ridge and dip as I listened to him moan, moving lightly over his skin and never pressing inwards, as it seemed he was more and more desperate for me to do. Finally, I pulled back and looked at him, his back in a sharp arch, his thighs shaking and his head hung low, moving as he panted. He groaned sharply as I moved my hand up under his balls to grab his cock, then stroke it. “Fuck, you're already getting hard again, aren't you? How much do you want this, Renji?”

With the way he looked, I was only half-expecting him to answer me, and I almost dropped the lube that I'd been reaching for when he did. “I've got to have your cock inside me, Ichigo. Fuck me.”

I growled as I squeezed the bottle too hard, and my whole hand was wet by the time I grabbed his hips. “Oh, I'll fuck you, Renji. I'll make you scream for me. You'll be lucky if you remember your own name by the time we're done.”

I sank two fingers into him and felt my cock twitch at his groan as I did. “Yeah, Ichigo. Fuck me just like that,” he moaned, pushing his hips back at me. I twisted my wrist as I pulled back slightly and slammed my hand into him harder. Eyes glued to where the two of us were joined, I vaguely heard my own grunts and growls in the background as I watched my fingers disappear into Renji, but my whole body seemed to shiver as I heard his moans and pleas to fuck him.

I had all four fingers in him before I realized it, watching the way he was bucking his hips back at me, and when my cock twitched again, I knew I'd better move things along before just watching him made me come. “I'm going to fuck you now,” I growled, slipping my hand out and ripping a condom open. I watched Renji flip over to lay on his back as I rolled the latex over my cock and saw him almost mirror my movements, fucking his own fist. I cursed under my breath as I got more lube, stroking it over myself.

“You're just begging for it, aren't you?” I said as I shakily crawled between his legs, unable to look away from his smug grin.

“Yeah, because you'd say I didn't want to, otherwise,” he murmured, just loud enough for me to hear as I pressed my slick cock to his entrance, a moan caught in my throat as he twitched his hips enough for the head of my cock to slide into him. I couldn't get enough air into my lungs as I eased into him, especially as I listened to Renji moan and curse. I was panting and barely able to hold myself up with my shaking arms by the time I'd pushed all the way into him. He shifted his hips after what seemed a few short seconds, obviously tired of waiting for me.

“Come on, Ichigo, fuck me,” he said, his voice low and seductive, and something in me just seemed to snap.

Pressing down close to his body, I pulled my hips back a bit, and growled as I latched on to his throat and slammed back into him at the same moment. An electric thrill ran up my spine at the howl he let out and I sucked and bit on his neck as I fucked him good and deep, letting his moans and cries help me set the right pace.

He moved with me, forcing me deeper when I thrust in and trying to pull me closer with his legs when I pulled back. After a little while of this, though, I started to realize that his cries, the way he was responding to me, and my pace were bringing me to the edge way too quickly. Somehow, struggling against his powerful thighs, I leaned back a little, enough to see him, as I slowed down. His flushed face and panting breaths sent another rush of heat through me, and I struggled to hold myself together as his eyes opened. They were big and dark, and regarding me with some annoyance.

“How does it feel?” I asked, before he could say anything.

Renji closed his eyes again before he answered, drawing in a shaky breath. “Fuck, you know how it feels. So damned good I can hardly stand it. Don't slow down now, you bastard.”

I thrust into him again, making the last few words he said garbled and getting another delicious moan out of him. “I need to slow it down a little,” I said, gritting my teeth and trying to manage the sensation of his tight, slick heat around me without losing it like I was getting closer and closer to.

“The hell with that,” he growled, using his legs around my waist to pull us closer. “I already came. I want to see the look on your gorgeous face when you come in me.”

He was grinning wickedly now, and I growled as I bit at his shoulder. I was panting and sweating, trying to hold back, but suddenly there didn't seem to be much point to it. “All right, Renji, just remember you asked for it.”

Renji's smile just widened as he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me in close. I closed my eyes for a moment as I dipped my head, dragging my nose along his neck and through his hair. Just the scent of him in bed was usually enough to get me hard, but the way he was holding me and murmuring into my ear how sexy I looked and how much he wanted to see me come were pushing it way too far. I struggled to hold on as I thrust into him again and again, giving it to him just as hard as I knew he liked, but I was too far gone compared to him.

The last thing I remembered before coming so hard everything went white for a moment was throwing my head back. I still felt puzzled a little while later as I came back down to earth as to why I'd done that, since I'd wanted to bury my face in his warm tattooed neck instead, but then I remembered Renji said he'd wanted to see me come. Grinning at the fact that I somehow recalled that, I asked Renji as I pulled away from him, “So, how did I look?”

He was lounging back in the bed now, legs still spread around me and his arms over his head, his tattoos on glorious display and his crimson hair thrown back on the pillow. Renji grinned and replied, “You looked so hot that I want to see it again. As soon as possible.”

I raised an eyebrow then as I reached under the bed for a towel to clean up a little after throwing the condom away, my gaze fixated on Renji's still hard cock. It twitched under my visual inspection, causing me to smile as l licked my lips. “Oh, if you think I'm done with you,” I said, finally meeting Renji's eyes again, “you're gravely mistaken.”

I reached for the bottle of lube I'd abandoned on the bed and watched Renji's expression change from smug to wondering, and then a little worried. “Ichigo,” he said slowly, as he watched me put some in my hands and rub them together to warm it, “what are you doing?”

“I think you'll figure it out in a minute,” I said as I raised myself up on my knees to tower over him.

He watched my hand, seemingly transfixed, as I reached behind myself. “You don't have to do this, Ichigo, if you don't want to,” Renji murmured, but his eyes had darkened again, and he was still staring at where my hand had disappeared.

I moaned and tipped my head back a little as I pushed a finger into myself. “I couldn't possibly leave you unsatisfied for your first time,” I replied, looking back down at him. “Besides, I didn't make you scream my name yet.”

He grinned up at me then. “Oh, is that what I was supposed to do?” He fell silent a moment later when I groaned as I thrust another finger into myself, closing my eyes as the feeling started to get to me. I started to think about how I was ever going to get myself ready for his huge cock with my skinny fingers when I suddenly opened my eyes as I felt something slick touch where my fingers were buried in me. Renji was staring at me with huge, dark eyes when my own flew open. “Can I?” he asked as he circled the spot.

I shivered as I muttered my assent, and then gasped wordlessly as he pushed his fingers in beside mine. My body gave a huge jolt, partly of pain but mostly of pleasure, as he did, because by then I was heated up enough to only want more. I couldn't help but move my hips along with the rhythm of our thrusts, twining my slick fingers with his and shuddering at the way it turned me on that he was helping me fuck myself. My eyes slid to his face, watching the expression of wonder and lust as he thrust his fingers into me. I watched him until my eyes inadvertently slid shut against the strong sensation when he crooked his finger forward, grazing that spot. My head tilted farther and farther back as he began to rub against it insistently with each stroke. Finally, as my thighs started to shake, I pulled my fingers out, forcing his to go along.

Panting, I reached over for a condom. “Hurry up and put it on,” I said, my voice low and affected and he scrambled to do it. I grabbed the lube again and poured a generous amount in my hands, then grabbed Renji's cock once he was ready. I ran my hands along his length teasingly slowly, appreciating every last bit of him. He sounded like he was growling in the back of his throat as I finished, but he stopped as I straddled him, his eyes big and fixed on me.

I hovered over him for a moment as he put his fist around the base of his cock, and then I was sliding down the length of him as I took him in. At that moment, it was his eyes that were shut tightly. The little noise that he made, seemingly stuck in the back of his throat, just heated me up even further. I moved as slowly as I could under the circumstances, pulling back until just the head of his cock was buried in me, pushing forward until I took just a little bit more of him than I had before, then teasingly pulling back again. After a little while, his head was moving back and forth on the pillow, one hand clutching at the mattress and another in a death grip on my hips as I took my time. “You fucking little torturer,” he whispered, just loud enough for me to hear.

I chuckled in response. “Are you all right, Renji?” I asked in an audible tone, struggling to keep my uneven breath out of my speech as I took in another half-inch or so of him.

“Yes,” he almost panted in return, his eyes open again and full of lust and frustration and playfulness. “You feel so good, Ichigo, so tight and hot around me.”

“This is nothing,” I replied, grinning like a maniac and trying not to moan as I slid down his cock another inch. “Just wait until we really get going.”

I lost my willpower to go slow somewhere around the time that Renji reached forward to start stroking my cock, his hand slick and knowing. I just sat for a moment after I'd taken all of him, my head thrown back against the sensation of being so well-filled and at the feeling of his piercing pressing insistently against just the right spot. Of course, that's one of the reasons I really like that position, along with having a lot of control. After a few moments to catch my breath, I felt like I could finally go again and brought my head back down, watching Renji's expression as I started moving. His big hands rested on my hips, but he wasn't trying to control what I did, just seeming to enjoy touching me as I fucked him.

He groaned deeply as I thrust him back into me. “You look so good riding my cock, Ichigo,” he muttered then. “Fuck me as hard as you want. I want you to come all over me.”

I let out a high, thin noise that I told myself was _not_ a whine as I listened. I tried to focus, reminding myself that I was doing this to get _him_ off, but I couldn't help listening to his voice as he continued. His low, sexy tone and the way he wouldn't stop stroking me as I rode him were pushing me to the edge faster than I expected, considering that I'd come not long before. I struggled to keep it together as I heard his voice again. “I've wanted this for so long, too. I have this dream about it sometimes.”

I felt the familiar internal tension of wanting to know the rest of the story as I watched him bite his lip, trying to look like a self-conscious student. “What was the dream?” I asked, my voice too breathless and low and turned on, but by then I didn't care.

He grinned then, as if he realized he had me. Like he hadn't known _that_ the whole time. “Do you remember the teacher we had for biology last year, Mr. Tyndal, and that big wooden desk he had in his classroom?” I nodded, picturing it in my mind. “Well, for some reason, we were walking by that room after school. It was really quiet, as if everyone else had gone home already. As we walked down that hall, for some reason you pulled me inside and shut the door. You smiled at me then and before I knew it we were over at the desk. You were kissing me and you pushed me down on it, and before I knew it, you'd taken off my clothes and yours.”

I could see it just how he described it, the way I'd looked up and down the hall before pulling Renji inside the classroom, the desire to see how he looked spread out over that huge desk too tempting to ignore. I realized I was moving faster now, moaning in the back of my throat as I rode him and his big hand jerked me off. His eyes were large and dark as he watched my every move, his smile growing as he continued. “I was embarrassed to be so hard for you already, but you just gave me a wicked smile as you grabbed my dick and said you liked it. You said you liked it so much that you wanted to ride me until I came in you. Well, that nearly made me come right there, but somehow I held back, because suddenly your gorgeous ass was right there as you turned around and crawled over the top of me to suck me.”

By that time, I couldn't do anything to respond to his story even if I'd wanted to. I don't know how he was still telling it, because I was panting as I rode him hard, and the feeling of his big cock in me had gone from the initial sensation of fucking good to so fucking good I could barely stop myself from screaming because each thrust was better than the last. The sound of his deep, sexy voice and his goddamned dirty story were turning me on to the point that I could barely see, so I kept my eyes screwed shut as I hung on his every word. “You were so fucking beautiful that I couldn't stop from licking you, and the way you shivered and moaned around my cock seemed to say you liked it, so I kept going. It wasn't long before I went from licking you to fucking you with my tongue because I couldn't help wanting to be inside you. You tasted like sex and I wanted more.”

I moaned then as much as I could between gasps for breath, and he paused as I felt the hand he still had on my hip tighten. As I was bringing my hips down, he brought his up to meet mine. My eyes flew open as I breathed in, staring into his dark, mischievous eyes as a hot bolt of pleasure shot through me. “Yeah, that's it,” he muttered before he continued the story again, punctuating it with the occasional sharp thrust of his hips upward. “Somehow you'd found some lotion in the drawers or something, but I took it away from you and spread it on my own hands. You didn't want to wait, though, and you kept asking me for more as you fucked yourself on my fingers. Then I figured out why you got the lotion because I could feel you spreading it on my cock slow, teasing me. After that you got impatient and flipped around and just sank your sweet little ass down on my dick and started fucking me hard, like you are now.”

I was getting so close now that the sensation was starting to overwhelm me, but I still hung onto Renji's voice in the far corner of my hearing, not wanting to lose that connection to him and somehow needing to hear him finish his story as I fucked myself into oblivion on his big cock. His voice was starting to get unsteady, though, and I could hear him panting as he slammed himself into me. “I want you to come for me, Ichigo. Come for me like you came in that dream, so hard that you're shaking and biting your lip trying not to cry out. I want to feel your hot come on me and see that sly, satisfied look you get on your face afterwards.”

He jerked his hips up and that was the last thing I knew for a little while, until the while light cleared away and I opened my eyes. I was still moving, mirroring Renji's movements as he continued to fuck me, obviously just about to lose it. “So good, Ichigo,” he was mumbling as he thrust his hips forward. “You feel so fucking good.”

Renji didn't make any noise when he finally came, just a gasp as his mouth opened wide and then his whole body shook, his hips continuing to thrust for a little while, then stilling as his chest heaved for breath. My arms were wavering by then and my legs felt like they didn't want to move for a while, so I was still on top of him, trying to brace myself from collapsing into a heap. Suddenly, as he opened his eyes, my breath caught in my throat. The look he gave me as he blinked a few times and finally focused on me made something hot and heavy grow in my chest, and I couldn't help but return the gentle smile he gave me, as if the two of us were sharing some unspoken secret. I knew I was blushing as I looked away and my sudden movement caused Renji to hiss as I my abs contracted. Carefully, I slid off of him as he held the end of the condom and I reached under the bed for a towel. “You're a bit of a mess,” I said as I handed it to him, grinning.

“I'm not the only one,” he replied, handing it back to me after he'd cleaned up and folded the towel.

I halfheartedly swiped at my stomach and chest with a clean corner before throwing it into the laundry pile, distracted by pawing through the clothes on the ground for my cigarettes and lighter. Once I found them, I prepared to get out of bed and go to smoke by the window in the corner like I usually did, but stopped when I realized it was already open. I swore as I remembered that _she_ was still there and I reached for my underwear, turning away from the window to put them on.

“I wouldn't bother,” Renji said with a sleepy chuckle. “I think she's seen everything you have by now.”

I growled in his general direction as he lounged on the bed half covered by the sheet, and I tried not to stare at the deliciously relaxed lines of his body. As I reached the window, I pushed the screen back as I said, “OK, Yoruichi, even we have to get to sleep sometime-”

And I stopped mid-sentence as the screen moved aside to reveal a large black cat sitting attentively on the chair that Renji had put there. As the cat turned its head, I could see in the dim light from the bedside lamp that it had the same color eyes she had, that light green with a hint of gold in it. I looked over at Renji in surprise, but he looked just as shocked as I did. Finally, not knowing what else to do and having the odd sensation of Yoruichi being in the room with us even thought it was evident that she wasn't, I turned to the cat. “Come on, time to go.”

The cat stood on the chair, yawned widely and stretched, then looked straight at me for a moment before she leaped off the chair, crossed the few steps to the window, and was gone out the window onto the fire escape. I gave Renji a look of disbelief as I neared the window, closed it so that it was only open a few inches, and pulled the chair nearby so that I could finish my cigarette. As I looked in Renji's direction again, I couldn't help but stare as he stretched his arms out behind him, arching his chest and neck and managing to show every tattoo I could see in the best way possible. He grinned at me as he settled his hands behind his head, his expression showing that he knew I'd been staring at him. I could feel my cheeks heat up as I looked away, trying to hide my discomfort by asking, “What the hell was _that_ about?”

“I don't know,” Renji replied, and I had to look over at him again, since I knew what the almost purring tone he was using meant. “She said when she called to set something up for her where she could watch us but not be seen, because she figured you'd freak out otherwise.”

I swallowed as I watched him, realizing that the sultry expression and the low, affected tone in his voice meant that although he'd gotten warmed up, Renji was nowhere near done for the evening. I tried not to think about that for a moment, taking a drag off my cigarette to steady me as I tried to remember what we'd been talking about. “What did you say?”

Renji shrugged, the gesture sending some of his hair cascading back to the pillow. “I told her not to say anything while she was here, and that I didn't want to see a film of this posted on the internet later.”

“Why not?” I asked, blowing out some smoke in the direction of the window. “I'm surprised you'd be against the idea.”

He gave me a wicked grin then. “I thought it would be kind of hot, but I knew you wouldn't like it.”

We both fell silent for a moment, Renji settling into bed a little more. I was just about finished with my cigarette when he looked in my direction again. “Are you almost done? You know, it's still early. I think we should pick up where we left off.”

I couldn't help but grin as I stubbed my cigarette out and shut the window all the way. “So, where were we, exactly?”

And since all debts are now paid, this marks the end of the case. For those of you that think that I'm leaving you in the same place I did the last time I relayed a story about a case, consider that I'm now watching Renji in _our_ bed, and that the way he's looking at me isn't only affecting my cock. It's a little intimidating, since I still feel like kind of a newcomer to relationships that last longer than two months, but I guess it just means I'll have to work harder to make sure I get things right.

So, if you'll excuse me, I've got some work to do.

**Author's Note:**

> If there was anything you liked, or thought could be improved, please comment. Thank you for reading!


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